Ranímer
by Mutt N. Feathers
Summary: The sequel to "Continuum". Harry and Ginny have returned to 1998, but thanks to the changes they made in 1980, the world they return to is very different. Is love enough when everything else about your life is completely different?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello there my faithful readers, I have finally started posting the sequel to "Continuum", only about a month late. Had a bit of a medical issue (not that I ever have those) and it needed to be dealt with, which is what caused the delay. Two bits of news: 1) Continuum has won the award for the best completed on Sink Into Your Eyes. Anyone who is cross-registered at the two sites, thanks so much for nominating and voting. 2) I am participating in the National Novel Writing Month event, and if you'd like to read my original story entitled "Flight" please see my author page for the link. I'm having a blast writing it, and the fact that "Ranímer" is posted at all is due in part to my being able to get my creative juices flowing again with "Flight". Thanks to my awesome betas, MyGinevera and Arnel. They really have kept me from literary disaster. I hope you enjoy. I'll be posting on Thursday or Friday most weeks, so this is a once a week thing. Thanks again, MNF**

**Ranimer:**

**by: Mutt N. Feathers**

_Ranimer (French): to rekindle a fire, restore, renew hope_

**Chapter 1:**

**Mémoires**

**January 5, 1998**

Harry's mind was still reeling, and it wasn't just because he'd only recently traveled back to nineteen ninety-eight from nineteen eighty. To Harry, it felt like about an hour of his life had passed since he'd left the old time and arrived in this one, for everyone else, eighteen years had passed. His head was overstuffed with memories - two lifetimes worth - and in several places they conflicted wildly.

The first set, the ones that he was having an easier time sorting through, were from his "first" life, or at least that was how he was going to classify them. This was his life where his parents were murdered when he was one year old, the life where his childhood was spent in the house of his dreadful aunt and uncle and with his repugnant cousin, Dudley. This was the life where he was hunted by Voldemort, and where he'd finally taken matters into his own hands and gone back in time to rid the world of the menace before he could get too much of a stranglehold on Wizarding society. This was also the world where he had Ginny Weasley.

Ginny, who'd stood by his side through all manner of tangles that he'd gotten himself into in school. The girl who he'd saved from the Chamber of Secrets and was his best friend's sister. Ginny, who helped him out of his funk when he began to suspect, during that cold Christmas at Grimmauld Place, that Voldemort had some kind of hold on him Ginny, who laughed when he did, cried along with him, and fought just as hard and fierce as anyone he knew. Ginny who married him before they went back in time, together, to defeat the Dark Lord and save his family.

They'd succeeded on both tasks. Voldemort was gone, and Harry's parents were alive - he was sitting across from them right now and had grown up with his four younger siblings. This was the "second" life, the new one. Here, Harry grew up happy and loved, getting in trouble with his siblings, friends and cousins. In these memories, Ginny was always there too, but their bond wasn't forged by shared adversity but rather by parallel lives. He had her love here too, until he was reckless with her and her love. There was an emptiness inside Harry that he couldn't explain, but he knew wouldn't be filled with anything but the love of the woman that, until a short time ago, he called his beloved wife.

Being married hadn't been easy, at least not at first. Neither of them was really prepared, and if they were honest about it, there was a whole lot that they didn't know about the other when they wed. Harry had no idea that it took a girl over an hour to get ready in the morning, and it really didn't matter that she was doing it in the only loo. He didn't know that at night she brushed her hair out one hundred times on each side before she would allow him to get amorous or before she fell asleep. He had no idea that she liked to eat ice cream right out of the carton, or that raspberries were her favorite, or that she wore silky little knickers and bras, or that she liked to bury her toes under his calves on chilly mornings while they still lay in bed. He didn't know that she cried when she was frustrated or that she was more stubborn than he'd ever imagined. Those were things that he learned about her in the year that they were in the past.

Now, she was in France, he was in Scotland, and she refused speak to him.

He could also remember, ever since she told him to leave her alone on that awful August day, that he'd been trying to fill his life with other things, and regardless of how hard he tried, it didn't work. Harry couldn't fully put the pieces of that puzzle together, so he had decided to ignore them for now. He knew that he'd get back to sorting the mangled and shattered bits of his love life before too long.

The young man sat across from his parents, who looked older than when he'd last seen them, only minutes ago in his head but nearly eighteen years removed for them. His mother was still beautiful, her auburn hair pulled into a loose ponytail, wearing pajama bottoms and an oversized sweatshirt with the name of a Muggle primary school on it. He recognized it from his new memories as the one that he'd gone to, and that his sisters now attended. His brother was at Hogwarts with him. His Dad hadn't lost his youthful good looks, and he knew that it was still obvious that Harry was James Potter's son. His father had trimmed his hair short now, so it wasn't sticking out the way Harry's tended to, and there was grey at his father's temples. A few faint wrinkles were also written onto James Potter's face, but it made him look distinguished, rather than just old. All in all, Harry thought that his parents looked good for being nearly thirty-eight years old. They looked at him as if he should have something to say, but a coherent thought couldn't form in his mind, but he knew he had to say something.

"I'm just having problems," he stammered out. "How can I really recall things from two completely different lives?"

"I know that Albus went over all of this with you before you left," Lily told him in that motherly, almost–but–not–quite scolding way. "I was there. The memories of the life that you led before you went back in time will begin to fade rapidly and the new memories will take over. Eventually, all that you might know of that other life will be snippets, like dreams."

"Now, if there are things that you want to remember," James joined the conversation, "we can either copy the memories and you can keep them for the pensieve, or you can write them down. I suppose that you could do both, actually."

"Yeah, there are a few..." Harry trailed off, obviously lost in his thoughts. A moment later, he snapped back to the world where his parents were patiently looking at him. "Okay, I'm trying to get things straight here. We live at Potter Manor, and it's outside Portree, Scotland, right?"

"That's right, son. Your Mum here works at St. Mungo's in the Experimental Medical Potions Department," James touted his wife's accomplishments. Harry had a confused look on his face while he searched his memories.

"You've got your Potions Master certification," Harry half asked as he continued to probe his own memories. "You did it while I was still a little kid and when you were pregnant with...Evan?"

"Yes, your brother's name is Evan," Lily answered his question with a chuckle. "Can't believe that you are having trouble remembering that, you certainly screamed it often enough when you were younger At first you were enamored with being a big brother, then you hated it, now you like it again. You're especially fond of your little sisters."

"Huh," Harry distractedly answered.

"Your siblings are Evan Andrew, he's thirteen and in his third year at Hogwarts, in Gryffindor, plays on the Quidditch team with you. Then there's Emma, she's going to be eleven in a month."

"She's the one that wants to go to France for her birthday?"

"Yes," James answered with a shake of his head. "Emma's birthday is two days before Lilyan Black's. They're like two peas in a pod. Both have that dark hair, green eyes, and they are the best of friends, always have been. Emma would have found a way to get herself to France, even if we said no, not that we ever would have."

"Sounds like she's got you wrapped around her finger, Dad."

"No more so than you have your Mum wrapped around yours."

"James, don't go telling him that," Lily chastised her husband, but the playful banter between his parents seemed familiar and comforting to Harry. It was exactly like when they were all together before the battle.

"Yes, well, your sister, Emma Llyn is a force of nature. We'll try to run a little interference for you for the next couple of days. She's bound to figure out that something is off about you," James explained.

"Then there's Eva-Claire," he continued, "she's seven and the quietest of your siblings. She thinks that you are the greatest thing in the world, and will often curl up in your lap and ask you to read to her. Got the Potter hair too."

"Poor kid," Harry commented back, his hand instinctually going to his own messy mop.

"Lastly is Brynne Rose, and she's five," Lily explained. "She's, well, she's Brynne. Actually, reminds me a lot of you when you were her age. She's an Evans all around. Has my mother's eyes, hence the name."

"Okay, so there's five of us, and we spend nearly every holiday and such with the Blacks and the Lupins? Their kids are like my cousins or something?" Harry inquired as he riffled through his brain, trying to place the now–massive number of children who were crowded around dining tables and Christmas trees.

"Well, Anwen and Sirius' kids are your blood cousins, and yes, there are eight of them. You've also got Remus and Eva's four kids, and you call them cousins. You need to remember to call him Professor Lupin at school. Your brother sometimes forgets."

"Wait, Remus is back teaching at Hogwarts? That's brilliant! When did Eva get back? What about Tonks?" The questions were rattling off Harry's tongue.

"Sirius' cousin, the Tonks family? What does Remus have to do with them?" James asked, and Harry tipped his head to the side and looked at his father intently.

"Uh, in my other life...whatever...Remus married Tonks and she was pregnant with their baby when we left."

"Remus married who? Andi? What happened to Ted?" Lily questioned her son.

"No, he married Nymphadora Tonks."

"Dora, she's like half his age," Lily stated incredulously. "What in the world was he doing with someone as young as she is? When did she come back from Spain?"

"Spain? What are you talking about in Spain?" Harry was now as confused as his mother.

"Stop, you two, you're making me confused," James said. "Harry, think through this in your mind. You know that the Tonks family had to move to Spain because of the death threats that they were getting. People weren't happy that Draco had been sent to live with them when his mum was jailed and his father given the Dementor's Kiss."

"I thought that Draco lived with Sirius and Anwen," Harry stated, getting even more confused by this mess of thoughts in his head.

"Okay, let me go back to the beginning. Immediately after the battle, Lucius was in St. Mungo's, but then he was taken directly to Azkaban. There was a trial, and he and several others who were in Voldemort's inner circle were given the Dementor's Kiss as their punishment. The Lestrange's were among them as well. It was hard on Draco's mother.

"While the postwar investigations were going on, it was discovered that Narcissa Malfoy was in on a plot to steal the Black family fortune." James and Lily let a look pass between them that didn't go unnoticed by their son. Lily gave her head a small twitch, silently telling her husband to pass over some bit of information, and the whole exchange left Harry feeling suspicious. But James began talking again. "She was sentenced to one hundred years in Azkaban for her crimes. Draco was only four months old when she was sent to jail.

"He was initially sent to live with Andromeda and Ted, but they lived in a Muggle neighborhood, and with Ted's blood status, well...many of the extended and distant pureblood family members objected. They began to taunt and harass the Tonks family. Things weren't safe for little Dora, she was only seven at the time. Eventually, their house was burned to the ground, and they took it as a message to move. They decided to uproot and head to Spain, where they've lived ever since. Dora is dating a Muggle musician or something like that."

"Oh," Harry answered, confused; that was certainly something he hadn't anticipated happening. "Tell me about Remus and Eva then. The last that I remember, she had fled with her mother when her dad was murdered by Death Eaters."

"That's right," Lily started telling the story. "We all missed her, but none more than Remus. It took him a while to heal, the extra werewolf saliva from Greyback's attack impeded the medicinal potions from doing what they needed to. Once he was healed, he decided that Eva really was the most important person to him, something had changed in him, with the help of your dad and Sirius, Remus began looking for her. It wasn't easy, they had hidden themselves quite well. It took him more than a year and a half, but he did find her. In February of nineteen eighty-two he brought Eva and her mum home. They were married in July of that year."

Harry had closed his eyes while he was listening, trying to put together the bits of his memories in the right place. Suddenly his eyes sprang open, and he looked at his mother with awe and wonder.

"You cured him," Harry said excitedly. "You were the one who finally was able to come up with the antidote for lycanthropy." Lily smiled gently, but before she could answer her son, his father started to gush about his mother.

"Yes, she did. She wanted not only Moony, but all the people who had been bitten by werewolves to be free. She won the Prize for Humanitarianism from the International Confederation of Wizards that year. I was so proud of her, still am. She's working on a cure for catastrophic injuries now, using what she learned from the now–latent lycanthropy cells."

"You're pretty cool there, Mum," Harry said with pride about his mother, and she blushed. "Now, what is it that you're working on, in English please?"

"When we finally were able to stop the monthly werewolf changes, the disease went dormant in the bloodstream. While the monthly response to the moon was gone, the remarkable healing abilities that accompany being a werewolf were still there," Lily explained.

"Moony was always a quick healer. He'd break ribs or teeth or things while we were out at school, and two days later, he was back to himself, without Skele-grow or anything," Harry's father added, and Lily gave him a rather curt raise of her eyebrows, letting him know that this was her story.

"While too much of the disease in the body will slow down healing, and not enough has no effect, I believe that if we find the correct dosage of the now–neutralized disease, we should be able to help a person heal their own body," his mother continued. A lump formed in Harry's chest and his mouth was suddenly dry. His mother's motivations were perfectly clear.

"You're doing this because of Ginny. Because of what I did to her," Harry said quietly, the guilt about the accident threatening to overwhelm him. It was so confusing. He remembered how much they had loved each other when they lived in the London flat. They had been prepared for the fact that they wouldn't be married when they got back; they both had hoped to be students, and better still, dating each other. Harry promised that he'd do everything he could to make sure that they were together, and married, soon.

The last thing that she said to him before Dumbledore had done the spell to send them back to their own time still rang in his ears. _"You are the only one that I love, Harry. Even if I am not legally your wife, I am your true wife in my heart. I love you."_

Unfortunately, the hateful words said in frustration that Ginny had yelled at him in the hospital were also there: her promise that she couldn't forgive him, and that he should just stop trying to make something better that he never would be able to. She told him to leave and never come back. That was August of last year; he hadn't really talked to her since.

"Harry, you didn't do anything," James tried to correct his son, but Harry just shook his head at his father. "It was an accident," James insisted.

The boy looked at his father with hard eyes. "An accident that was my fault."

James closed his eyes and sighed, looking like he was attempting to get his emotions under control. "Yes, you did something that you shouldn't have, but it was still an accident," he told his son through a stiff jaw and somewhat clenched teeth.

Harry couldn't look at the disappointment that was written on his father's face any longer, and put his head in his hands, running his fingers through his now very sloppy hair. There was an uncomfortable silence which Harry finally chose to break.

"I remember, I was in Remus and Eva's wedding, right?"

"You were. You, Draco and Bastien were all ring bearers. All of you thought that you were carrying the real rings, when none of you had them at all," Lily joked.

"Bastien, he's Anwen and Sirius' son?"

James and Lily exchanged another look before Lily simply answered, "Yes."

"Anyway, Remus and Eva have four kids: Remus John, Jr. but he goes by R.J. and he's nine. Eleanor Belle who's seven and their twins, Chris and Andy, they're four, and quite a handful," she continued. "Little Ellie-Belle has a voice like her mum. When the twins get riled up, she starts singing to them," Lily continued.

"Professor Lupin is still at Hogwarts, right? The Defense professor?" Harry was quite hopeful about this. Lupin was the best DADA professor that they'd ever had.

"He is, has been since four years before you began. He was going to leave when you boys started at school, seeing how he's your uncle and all, but you begged him to stay," James answered.

"Auntie Eva, she's a counselor?"

"A family therapist, yes. She has a small office in Hogsmeade, just down the lane from their house. Remus either takes the floo, or walks up to school every morning. It all seems to be working out well for them, although he thinks that he'll leave the position when his children start. Believes that they should have a chance to enjoy their education without their father there."

"I don't know, he's pretty cool..."

"He is, but it would still be a drag," James observed.

Harry laughed at his father's slang. "Dad, drag hasn't been popular since you were my age."

"Very funny. For one part of you, yesterday we were the same age," James teased back and he and Harry shared a hearty laugh.

They talked a while longer, Harry working to put all the memories that he wanted to preserve in the front of his mind. They worked hard to avoid the topic of Ginny, and Harry was just as happy. Every time something reminded him of her, his gut lurched and he felt his palms go clammy. He missed her so much, but given the state of their relationship, he wasn't sure how he was going to begin to repair things. He only could hope that she remembered how happy they'd been while they were together in the past.

When they got to the point that Harry was emotionally overloaded by trying to remember everything, James took him into his study and pulled out his personal pensieve. While his father worked, Harry took in the pictures around the room. There were awards and placards on the walls, interspersed with his dad standing with the Minister of Magic; another with Professor Dumbledore, although he was wearing some very fancy robes; Sirius and he in front of a shop front; and his dad in the bright blue robes of the High Council of the Wizengamot.

"Dad, what is it that you do?" Harry couldn't quite seem to remember.

"Well, your Uncle Sirius and I own a chain of shops that sell Charmed household items. Many of them are things that we made for your Mum and Aunt Anwen over the years. Turns out that many women want clothes racks that automatically fold the dried laundry. I also sit on the Wizengamot, and I'm on the Council."

"Wow," Harry answered as he looked around the room more. Over the fireplace was a picture of his parents, Anwen, Sirius and Remus looking just like he remembered them. Anwen was still on crutches, and oddly, she wasn't standing next to Sirius in the picture. The only people who looked really happy were his mum and dad. Remus had that slightly pained and melancholy look he always bore, and Anwen and Sirius honestly looked like they'd rather be anywhere else than standing there. Below the photograph, was a brightly colored ribbon holding the Order of Merlin, first class award. "You were given the Order of Merlin?"

"After the war, yes," James said quietly. "Had you and Ginny stuck around, I'm sure that you would have been recognized as well, but we knew why you hadn't. Regulus was awarded one, too, but he was still in the hospital then. Frank and the second wave were all awarded the Second Class medals."

Harry perused the wall further. "You were the Deputy Minister of Magic? Geesh, Dad, I'm gone for a few days, and you turn into this responsible adult," Harry teased.

"Harry, I was a father and a husband, and most importantly, a Potter. The last name already garnered a certain amount of respect. When the heroics of the battle became public knowledge, what I said and did became very important to many, many people. All us of were public figures, our stories were told and retold - minus you and Ginny of course, Dumbledore saw to that. If your role had become public, it would have contaminated the whole timeline. Anyway, there was a great deal of rebuilding that needed to take place, so yes, I became the Deputy Minister of Magic, and Sirius and I were both seated on the High Council. Because we came from old families, everything that we said or did was highly regarded. We knew this; it's one of the things that we were raised with and that we'd been trying to teach all of you kids. Whatever you do in life, son, will reflect back on the entire family and its legacy." Harry looked down at his father's words, remembering some things that he wasn't proud of, so he was sure his father wasn't either. James chose to say nothing about the look on his son's face, instead moving on.

"I resigned as deputy after two years. Your mum wanted to get her Masters in Potion Making and things had quieted down. The trials were over, new laws had been enacted and a new minister had been elected. That's when Sirius and I decided to open the shops. I handle all the day to day aspects of the business, he's only involved in product development."

"Wow," Harry muttered again, impressed with the man that his father had become rather quickly. James had put the pensieve on his desk, as well as several small phials, similar to the ones that he'd seen containing the memories of Tom Riddle at Dumbledore's office.

"You remember how to do this?" James asked and Harry closed his eyes and found the memory of learning from his father when he turned sixteen how to pull his memories.

"Yeah, I do," he answered.

"I'll leave you to it, then," James told him as he walked to the door. "If you need me, or anything, just holler. I'm sticking close to the house today, as is your mum. Frank said that he'd pick up Evan to take him to the Express later this morning. Headmistress McGonagall knows that you're not returning today, and why."

"Oh, uh, okay," the younger man stumbled over a response. "Thanks, Dad." Harry watched his father leave the study and close the heavy mahogany door behind him. Late morning light was filtering in the windows to his right, and he looked out onto the back lawn, the garden, the Quidditch pitch beyond. It was strange for him to be able to remember his childhood birthday parties here, falling down and skinning his knee with his mum there to kiss it better, riding his first adult broom. Simultaneously, he could remember birthdays at the Dursley's, no one kissing away his tears and bandaging the brush burns and not knowing about Quidditch until he was at Hogwarts.

Harry rubbed his eyes, realizing for the first time that he still wore glasses here. That was something that he'd put a quick end to. He hated the things, and even though these frames were certainly better than the cheapest round frames that his aunt had made him wear, they were still cumbersome and blocked his field of vision. He was going to get rid of them, especially since Ginny liked the way his eyes looked...

He ended the thought mid-way through. As of right now, it didn't matter what Ginny did or didn't like. The jumbled feelings that coursed through Harry made him want to lose the small bit of breakfast that he'd been able to choke down. Panic coursed through him, and he laid aside his wand. There was something that he had to do. He looked over his father's desk seeing a quill and ink, and tore through the drawers looking for parchment and began scribbling.

A little before noon, Harry came out of the small room. His face was blotchy and his eyes were red. He let his feet carry him through the maze of the first floor, somehow both knowing and not knowing where it was that he was going to find his mother. He found her in the kitchen, rolling out dough for pasties, his little sisters each kneeling on high back chairs pushed up against the table, their own small rolling pins overworking scraps of the dough.

"Hawwy," said the littlest girl with wild curls and deep violet colored eyes dancing, "we're makin' pwasties!"

"I can see that," the teen chuckled as he leaned against the doorframe, reveling at the normalcy of the moment. If he were honest, it was something like this that was his fondest heart's desire when he was a child. "I think that you're wearing as much of that flour as you worked into the pastry."

"I's always messy," the little girl pronounced happily. "Mama calls me a ragamuffin."

"I can definitely see why." Harry padded the rest of the way into the room and leaned down and kissed the crowns of both the girls: the older of the two, the dark eyed, dark haired doll that must be Eva-Claire, and the other the precocious Brynne.

"Yuck," the littler girl responded, wiping her head with her flour caked hand, streaking her hair with dough. "If you kiss me, Hawwy, I get boy gems." Lily and Harry started laughing at the girl.

"They're germs, Brynne, not gems. Gems are the things that princesses wear," Eva-Claire corrected her.

"Well, I don't want those either!" the littlest Potter called out, making her brother and mother laugh even harder.

"Lunch will be ready as soon as these bake," Lily explained as she slipped the baking sheet into the oven.

"Mama, what about these?" Eva-Claire inquired.

"I will be using magic to bake those," their mum explained, very quietly adding, "sanitizing them as well." Harry sniggered at the comment before reaching into a cupboard that he knew contained the mugs and poured himself a large portion of tea from the pot that was set to steep on the counter.

"Mummy, Aunt Anwen is on the floo," a voice came from the entryway. Harry assumed that it belonged to the last of his sisters, the apparently very observant Emma.

"Coming, Em," Lily called back before waving her hand and cleaning up her small kitchen mess. "Do you mind keeping an eye on them for me for a sec? I've been waiting for Winnie to call all morning."

"No, not at all," Harry told her. "Take your time, I can clean them up. Will you ask how Ginny is? For me?" Lily laid her hand on Harry's cheek and smiled warmly and nodded at her boy before hastily walking out the door to the floo connection. A girl walked in, who could quite honestly have been the female version of Harry himself.

His sister had long black hair that had been charmed to stay in the plait down her back, bright bottle green eyes, a lithe but strong build made him wonder how good she was on a broom. She cocked an eyebrow at him before cracking the gum that she was chewing.

"What are you staring at, Harry? You look like you've never seen me before."

"Oh, um, sorry, just lost in space," he threw out.

"You got that right," she said under her breath. "Mum said to get them cleaned up for lunch. Eewe, I just did my nails, I don't want to deal with that goo." His sister Emma sounded like every girl he could think of at school...except for Ginny. He sighed at the thought of her, which only made the near–adolescent cock her eyebrow again and stare at him.

"Tell you what, I've got this," Harry announced, pulling his wand. "Okay girls, stand up and let your big brother clean you up." The little girls seemed excited, and both hopped down from their chairs and stood in front of him.

"You're going to use magic?" Emma asked him.

"Sure, why not?"

"Uh, house rules," she stated. "No unnecessary magic."

"Well, since your nails are all done so nice, I thought that it was necessary."

"You know, they will punish you," his sister replied with sass. "You're not at school, so there's no magic in the house."

"Emma, I'm of age," Harry reminded her.

"If you say so," she skeptically added. "Just keep me out of it." Emma Potter crossed her arms and leaned back against the wall of the kitchen. Harry magically scrubbed his sisters clean in an instant, and removed all their mess, leaving only the poorly shaped and oozing raw pasties on the baking sheet.

"There you go, all clean," Harry announced while Emma clucked her tongue. She suddenly reminded him of Hermione. Warm memories of his friend flooded his mind, and he was suddenly very excited to see her when he returned to school. There was so much that he wanted to talk about with her, most importantly, how to at least get Ginny to talk to him.

As the two little girls hopped down off their chairs, Lily re-entered the room.

"Do I get to go over to see Lilyan today?" Emma quickly asked. "All of my holiday assignments are done, my room is clean - well, okay it's neat - and I finished up the last of my history reading that Daddy gave me."

"I'm sorry sweetie," Lily said as she put a hand on her eldest daughter's shoulder, "today isn't a good day. Things are a little crazy over at Lilyan's house today."

"Mum," the girl whined. "I got everything ready so that I could go this afternoon."

"I'm sorry, but the answer is no. We'll be going over on Friday, though, for the weekend. All of us," Lily explained, her eyes lifting from her daughter to her son as she said this.

"Fine," Emma answered, sounding anything but. She turned to ease out the door that she was standing next to, and then threw a comment back into the kitchen. "Oh, and Harry did magic to get the girls cleaned up." Harry supposed that she hoped it would go off like a bomb.

There was silence in the room while Harry and his mother looked at each other as the little girls scampered from the kitchen.

"She's always like that, isn't she?" Harry inquired after his sister also left.

"Unfortunately, yes. Ten going on thirty. She's a good kid otherwise, just that mouth..." Lily sighed to punctuate the sentence. She shook off whatever thought about the girl had passed through her mind. "About the magic: we've had some issues with your brother doing magic in the house when he's home from school. He nearly burned the place down last year. I know you're an adult, but at least around the little kids, keep the magic to a minimum. I don't want them getting hold of one of our wands and deciding to give it a trial spin."

"Got it, Mum," Harry said as he leaned over to kiss her cheek. "You're really good at this parenting stuff." Lily's eyes got misty at the sentiment, and she smiled back at the nearly grown boy before wrapping her arms around him and hugging him.

"Don't lose hope, Harry," she whispered in his ear. "I haven't. You loved each other too much to give it all up."


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Chapter 2 and how Ginny's dealing with everything. Thanks to everyone who has read, put it on alert, reviewed or anything else. The acceptance of this story has been overwhelming. Off to see my daughter on opening night in her school musical. Thanks to Arnel and MyGinevra for betaing me. MNF**

**Chapter 2:**

**"Tu me pardon?"**

"Do you need another potion?" Ginny heard the gentle voice calling her, and she lifted her head, looking across the room at the person who had been speaking to her. She dropped her eyes again and shook her head. "Do you want to be alone?" The woman asked.

"No." The girl struggled to make the one syllable leave her lips. She wasn't sure she was ready to make conversation just yet, but she was sure she didn't want to be alone. Alone was too quiet, too lonely. If she were alone, she'd have to fill the silence in her head with something; at least with another person here, that responsibility would fall elsewhere.

Ginny looked at the woman as she drew into the sitting room and closed the door behind her. Anwen was slight in her youth, and age had done nothing to change that. Her face was thinner than it had been at seventeen, she'd lost the last vestiges of childhood, her cheekbones were now more defined. Her face was partially obscured with glasses that sat low upon her nose.

As she moved toward her, Ginny saw a frailness that was unfamiliar to her eyes, not that the younger woman needed to struggle to understand the source of the weakness. Anwen's gait was unsteady, uneven, the permanent reminder of the battle they'd fought together. While her need to partially drag her right leg along gave the impression that the older woman was weak, Ginny knew better. You didn't have eight children and serve as prosecutorial counsel for the International Confederation of Wizards if you were weak.

Anwen sat down on the sofa across from the younger woman and lifted her hand to summon the footrest from across the room. As the stool settled and Anwen placed her feet upon it, Ginny caught sight of the leg under the long skirt her friend was wearing. The skin wasn't smooth, but rather puckered, stretched over the muscles, still pink and raw after all these years, scars that never really faded. It looked painful.

Reflexively, Ginny looked down at her own legs, peeking out from under the soft slacks that she was dressed in. A portion of her calf and ankle were visible, the skin peach and soft, they looked good. Looks can be deceiving, there was no hope of them ever working, even as poorly as Anwen's did. Ginny's fists clenched at the injustice, and then she let them relax, remembering she'd been this way for over six months now.

"I'm sorry we had to sedate you, but I was afraid you were going to hurt yourself when you woke up," Anwen told her sympathetically. "You've been sleeping for quite a while, almost three hours. You sure you're okay now?"

Ginny nodded at her friend, still struggling to free her brain from the slight fog that it was in. When she first awoke this morning, awoken in this time, she panicked at not being able to move her legs. That's when she'd been sedated.

"I can't imagine what you must be thinking or feeling," Anwen gently said as she took Ginny's hand between hers. There was something familiar about the way she spoke, never saying, 'I know what you're going through' because she couldn't. Instead, acknowledging there was pain and sadness seemed so much more genuine and real. Ginny appreciated that her friend, or guardian, or whatever she was, now spoke to her honestly and fairly.

The familiar art-deco engagement ring and rose gold wedding band were on Anwen's hand, and it caused Ginny to smile. Anwen and Sirius' magical binding ceremony had been one of the most romantic things she'd ever been witness to. For Ginny, they were newlyweds; to them, they'd been married for nearly eighteen years.

"Everything is so jumbled," Ginny confessed. "How is it that I can distinctly remember eating breakfast here with Lilyan and Jamie only hours ago, and I remember quietly sharing the same meal in bed with Harry at Grimmauld place?"

"Because, in effect, you have lived two lives up until the moment you awoke. Eventually, the memories from before will fade, and all you'll know is this life. There are ways that you can preserve any memories you'd like to, though."

"What if I'd rather have the other one back?" There was a melancholy that had wrapped every word in a delicate, gauzy film, somehow making them even sadder.

"I can see how you'd feel that way, but I promise you, your life here is very good. Ginny, you're an exceptional young woman, with a bright future." Anwen sounded every bit the mother that she was. Ginny couldn't quite reconcile the woman she'd called her best friend only yesterday was now her surrogate parent.

The young witch ran her fingers through her fiery tresses, releasing them from the loose braid that one of the Black girls had put them into before breakfast this morning, and then held the palms of her hands over her eyes. She hoped that if she willed the dry sting of her used up tears to go away that it simply would. Upon removing her hands she knew that it was too much to ask for. The excess adrenaline from waking up and being unable to move was still making her jittery, even with the potion that Anwen had given her.

"I guess," Ginny started, "I guess I need to put all this back together, from the beginning. Not my childhood beginning, but my being here beginning. Why am I living with you?" A faint chuckle passed from Anwen's lips, and it made Ginny feel instantly better.

"Nothing quite like jumping in with both feet there," she teased and Ginny cocked her head to the side, indicating a 'why not' sort of response. "One of the things that I always liked about you as a friend, you didn't pull your punches. Okay then, the simple answer is that your mum was already feeling quite overwhelmed with the full–time care that your Uncle Fabian required. He's lived at the Burrow since he was injured in the battle of the Orkney's."

"I remember that, growing up with him and Uncle Gideon around, a lot."

"In theory, Gideon didn't live there. In reality, he depended on your mum for nearly everything. When he wasn't at work, he was at your house. He was killed a few years ago, terrible accident," Anwen added quietly and Ginny didn't press for details, so the elder woman went on. "His death hit your mum hard, she hasn't been quite the same since.

"When you were hurt, you were quite angry, and you sort of lashed out at everyone. It didn't help that your family wanted to smother you, do things for you all the time. After about six weeks, there was a fire call from your dad and Bill, asking if maybe you could come here. They hoped that I'd be able to get through to you when no one else could."

"Why here though?" she asked. "There must have been rehabilitation hospitals and such that I could have gone to?"

"Oh, there were, but…well, lets just say that I've been where you are, and dealt with what you're going through."

"Because of your injuries, after the battle? It was a miracle that you survived?"

"Sweetheart, the physical problems were only about half of it. You were angry at Harry for the way that he'd hurt you and then how he attempted to make amends, or not make amends as was the case. You were angry at the hand that you'd been dealt. You didn't want him around, but your mother was just encouraging his behavior and getting upset at you for not forgiving him. Above all else, that situation is what I understood." Anwen was speaking in circles, and it was making Ginny frustrated.

"What do you mean?" The tone was angrier than she'd intended it to be. Anwen brushed some loose hairs behind Ginny's ear before she started talking again.

"So much happened after the battle was over. We won that fight, but I had no idea of the war that I was personally about to endure," Anwen told her quietly, looking dreamily out the window at the streets beyond. Somehow Ginny didn't think that it was the quaint village outside that Anwen was looking at.

"You knew Sirius back then," she started telling her tale, not looking at the younger girl, nor the scenery outside, but inward, almost like some loop of old pictures playing in her head. "He thought that I was as delicate as porcelain and I needed to be protected and treasured..." Anwen sighed as a loving smile crept across her face. "After the battle, he insisted that he remain at the hospital with me, even though they were ready to release him a few days later. He couldn't imagine not being there if I needed something. At first it was sweet, I was in so much pain that I couldn't do anything for myself, so I appreciated his constant attention. Then I started to get better, and I felt like he wouldn't let me care for myself. I had hoped that it would be better when I was finally released from hospital," she added glumly.

"We returned to Grimmauld Place, not only because his mother needed the companionship, but we'd become overnight media stars. Our little London house was staked out by reporters and well–wishers, and we had no privacy there. Apparently his marrying me was quite a news story, seeing how he had been one of the most eligible wizards in all of Great Britain. That we married without any of the reporters finding out frustrated them. Finding every detail of my life became their new obsession. Professor Dumbledore handled the press as best as he could, charmed my personal records so that my Muggle family couldn't be contacted, but Sirius and I were still hounded. We also were very careful that my Parker heritage didn't come out, since my grandmother was still in hiding. I came to resent the attention - from everyone.

"I know that it sounds ungrateful, but I was seventeen, and I didn't care that people wanted to know who I was. I wanted to have time to wallow in what I'd lost - my best friend and her husband, the use of my leg and all the bits of my personality that were wrapped up in that: dancing, being an Auror, being whole. Giving interviews and being photographed when I went to my therapy sessions at St. Mungo's was just too much. Regulus died from his injuries just as the story started to go away, and the press began digging again. Then the story broke about Felicienne Seduire and her pregnancy and Sirius being the father."

Ginny scoured through her mind, until she came upon the name. Anwen and Sirius' second son, Bastien, this had to do with him. She wasn't quite sure why, but when she thought about the dark–haired, grey–eyed boy, her insides quivered, just a little. It surprised her, because it was so similar to what she felt when she thought about Harry, and the London flat, and their being married. This was definitely something she needed to think about more.

"Bastien," Ginny whispered. "You found out from the press that Sirius was having a baby by another woman?"

"Essentially," Anwen confirmed. "Frank had fire-called and told us he needed to see us immediately at the Ministry. There was some very disturbing information about Narcissa Malfoy which had been uncovered in their investigation. Something about stealing the Black family fortune, and since Sirius was now the de-facto head of the Black family…" she trailed off, swallowing hard. Ginny hated that her friend was having to recount something so awful for her. "We were accosted by a reporter in the lobby, I didn't believe her, but Frank confirmed the story when we got up to the Auror offices. I fled the building, not even waiting to hear what was going on. I just knew that they'd confirmed that Bastien was to be born in January, and he was Sirius' son."

"My goddess, what did you do?"

"At first, I went to James and Lily's, Remus had been recovering there and I needed him and Lily, but Sirius just followed me to the manor. I couldn't go home to my parents, lest they would be found by the press. I just wanted to be alone, it was all too much. That night, James brought me back to my grandmother's house, not telling Sirius where he'd taken me. Alice and Frank came over the next day, and brought me all the evidence they had about how Sirius had been Imperioused and that he'd fought the curse admirably, but in the end, he was coerced to have sex with her, and they had created a child. I was devistated." Anwen wiped a tear from her face.

"Anyway, a week or so later, Remus was finally able to talk some sense into both of us, getting me to listen to reason and getting Sirius to back off a little. Sirius came to stay here in Quimper, taking his own rooms at the inn. I calmed down enough to speak to Sirius, and by mid-fall we'd reconciled. We bought a small house here, enjoying the relative anonymity that the place provided, and while the trial was difficult, both Narcissa and Felicienne were sent to Azkaban for their parts in the plot. So you see, I understood how upset and confused you were at Harry, better than anyone. The person who was supposed to love you the most had hurt you the deepest. I think it's been beneficial to you, being here with us."

"It has been. I can't wallow, your children won't let me," Ginny confessed. The young woman was silent for a few minutes, but instead of asking about what was pressing on her the most, she thought of something else. "So, you've lived in France since?" Anwen threw her head back and laughed before responding.

"Heavens no. We own more houses all over Europe than any family could ever need, and we haven't stayed in the same one for too many years at a time. Nature of my work, we travel. We moved from Quimper to Paris, then back to London, then we bought the house in Portree, not far from Potter Manor. Lived there until ninety-three when we moved to Zurich, then we were in Lisbon, then back to Quimper. This home and Fair Garden, the estate in Scotland, are the ones that the children consider their home, however. Oh, we've also got a small house in Greece and a vacation home in India. Thankfully, we've got two more years here and then the next ICW quadrennial will be spent in England. After that, I am thinking it will be time to retire."

"You're a prosecutor, right?"

"Yes, I work with ICW, International Confederation of Wizards, specifically, in the areas of Pureblood cruelty and ethnic and Muggle cleansing. After the accident, I knew that I couldn't be an Auror - although Alastor kept telling me that not having two good legs was no impediment to being a fine Auror - but I still wanted to work in law. Sirius had decided that he wanted to get his Masters in Charms, and initially I raised the children and took care of the home while he completed his education. I got easily bored, so I began studying law from home. I took the International Law Examination in early 1985, seven months pregnant with our third child."

"And you've got eight now? Holy cow, Anwen, like you've got my mum beat!"

"Yes, well, I've only been pregnant four times if that helps. Our children just keep finding us, and we keep our door open. Never know when someone might need shelter from the storm." With that, Anwen reached over and squeezed the girl's hand. It made Ginny feel so safe and assured.

"Okay, in birth order because I can't keep them all straight otherwise: Draco came to live with us when he was about a year old, after some rather nasty business back in England. We were finally able to adopt him when he was ten. Bastien is six months younger than Draco, so it's similar to having raised twins. Ethan is five years younger than them, so he's twelve, almost thirteen, and in his second year at Hogwarts. Lilyan is next, she's turning eleven next month and will start in the fall. John and Jamie, our twins, will be ten this June, and they are different as night and day. Jamie is quiet and introspective and John is just louder than a Quidditch match. Edmund was born a little over seven years ago, and Christianna came to live with us a few days after she was born, four and a half years ago."

"Wow…that's…so are you done?" Ginny couldn't imagine what it must have been like around here when they were all little.

"I will be having no more children, but that is not to say another might not find their way home. This family has a way of multiplying when we think that we're done."

"How do you find time to work in the midst of all of this?"

"Well, we have help, Sirius and I don't do this alone. There are several servants, not house-elves, we don't own our help. They're all from magical families, but haven't shown any discernible magical skill. We pay them fair wages as well as owning several houses here in town that they and their families can live in as part of their compensation package," Anwen explained.

"All Squibs then?"

"Yes, but we don't use that word. By classifying them as something other than people, there have been those who felt justified in treating them as having no worth. That's far from the truth, so I just refer to them as people coming from magical families. We also have two part–time tutors on staff, mostly to help with your studies and to keep the children abreast of the history of Great Britain, and I have an Au Pair that assists in the afternoon when all the children are home from school. She's a very sweet girl that just graduated from Beauxbatons and is hoping to enter the Akademie der Magischer Astronomie in Berlin next fall. Oh, and Kreacher still lives at Grimmauld, and is officially in charge of the household there, but we haven't resided in the house in nearly a decade. We never freed him because we didn't think he'd be able to survive if we did, but in all honestly, we don't think of him as property and he has no work to do there, since the house remains unoccupied. Sirius goes by a few times a week to check on him, make sure he's no further around the twist. He took Walburga's death hard."

"I can't remember..." the young woman said as she half–closed her eyes. "When did Mrs. Black die?"

"She lived about a year and a half after the battle, but her body was always weak from the poisoning. Her son's death hit her very hard. We all thought that Reg was recovering well, and then one night...his organs just started to fail. The cascade of failures was quick, and he was gone before dawn. Mum's heart and spirit never did recover. She saw the first two of her grandchildren born, but no more. I was always happy though, that Sirius had reconciled with her before she'd passed. Louise Malfoy sort of adopted us after that, and she acted as the children's surrogate grandmother until she passed about two years ago."

Ginny looked at her friend and smiled, thinking she was still leading an extraordinary life, even if it wasn't the one that she expected. The young witch searched through her memories, "Sirius is a professor? I bet all the girls make eyes at him!"

"Yes, and yes; but he only has eyes for me," she quietly confirmed. "He's got his Masters in Charms, Hexes, Curses and Counter–Curses from Le centre pour la recherche haute et avancée et l'expérimentation magique. Or, CHARMS, when you look at the name when it's spelled out on the wall of the place. Rather imbecilic name if you ask me, but then again, it was named in 1271, long before my time. He's a full time professor at the school now. He also sits on the Wizengamot, and is a sort of silent partner in a chain of shops with James. Thank goodness for that, he isn't much for the minutia of owning a business. He does assist James in new product development."

"The two of you are the picture of domestic bliss," the younger woman teased the older.

"The marriage we have, the life we've built, it's based on hard work, and loving him more every day." Before they had the chance to move to another topic of conversation, there was a gentle knock at the door.

"Come in," Anwen called, and a young man who was the spitting image of the Sirius that Ginny had known in the past, minus the beard and mustache, opened the door. "What is it, sweetheart?" Anwen asked.

"Dumbledore is on the floo, he told me to tell you he knows what day it is, but it's an emergency. He's about to leave for Bosnia again," the boy explained and Anwen ran her hands through her hair and stood.

"I'm so sorry, I need to take this," she explained to Ginny. "Your dad doesn't know that he called, right?" Bastien shook his head no and Anwen looked relieved. "Good, he'd have a fit that I was called on my day off." Bastien came into the room as his mother left.

"I was hoping to talk to you before I had to leave this morning. We're going to floo to Grimmauld and then go to King's Cross from there. I wish Dad would just take us up to school, but he wants us to ride the train," Bastien sighed.

"I always liked the train ride," Ginny said. "Got away with stuff …" she stopped, unsure of where she was going with the thought. "You excited, you've only got a few months left?"

"Yeah, I just wish I knew what I wanted to do when I left Hogwarts."

"You'll figure it out," Ginny assured him, reaching out to take his hand. A bolt shot through her when she touched him, and it made her catch her breath. A slightly uncomfortable silence grew between them, and Ginny could sense that the boy wanted to hear something from her. The problem was, she couldn't quite figure out if she wanted to tell him anything. She could sense she had some developing feelings for him, but she also still had all the positive feelings for the Harry of the past, and her frustrated feelings toward Harry of the present. She didn't want to lead Bastien on, but she wasn't sure that she wanted to burn this bridge either.

"We're all coming home this weekend," he said, "Mum wants to celebrate something, I don't get what she's talking about but Dad said we're doing this to make her happy."

"Yeah, it'll be nice to see everyone," Ginny muttered and the uncomfortable silence continued. "Bastien, will you keep writing me? I like getting your letters." She could remember him writing her during the fall term, and how lovely it was to have someone interested in what she was learning, and really paying attention to what she had to say. She could also remember sitting with a charmed mirror and having the boy help her with her studies after dinner.

"Sure," he said, his eyes bright with excitement when he spoke. "I like writing you too. Glad that I have my own owl now, it wasn't so bad when I had to share one with Draco when we were younger, the only people we ever wrote were Mum and Dad and our grandparents. Now, Draco spends most of his nights writing Elisabeth, so I couldn't always get the owl when I need it. Mum does want me to share with Ethan, still, but he only writes Mum and Dad."

"Draco and Elisabeth are cute together. Do you think that he'll go with her to the Astronomical Academy next year?" Draco and the Black's Au Pair had become a couple last summer. Ginny thought about it, and wouldn't be surprised if they ended up getting married.

"I know that he wants to, and he certainly has the grades for it. Dad says that it's the Black family blood in him."

"Yeah," Ginny quietly replied, thinking about the ceremony that Mrs. Black had done with the crystals and the planets, sun, moon and stars to destroy the Horcrux.

"I uh, I should go make sure that my trunk is ready. Dad's having a hard enough time with Ethan, he kind of expects Draco and me to handle this stuff on our own, since we'll be leaving school in the spring and all. I guess I'll see you on Friday night then, um, yeah…" he stammered out before standing, intending to leave.

"I'll look forward to it. You're going to floo from Professor Lupin's house, right?"

"Yeah, Mum doesn't like us Side-Along Apparating, and Ethan and Evan will be with us. I think Ron and Neville are coming too, so it's best if we floo. Ron tends to splinch himself."

"My brother can be a little scatter-brained. I miss Hogsmeade. Can't get my favorite chocolates here, and Honeydukes is definitely the best. It's enough to make me think about going back to Hogwarts," Ginny said sadly. There were things she did miss about her old school in Scotland, her friends and the confections being the biggest two.

"Well, when you're ready, everyone will be happy to see you. Just think, next fall you get to have Emma and Lilyan there with you. If those two aren't in Gryffindor, I think that they'll explode," Bastien teased his sister and her best friend even though they weren't here to defend themselves. "Look, I need to go, but, um," he paused and looked at her intently, and then leaned down and kissed her cheek. "Bye."

Ginny put her hand up to where his lips had been and smiled. "Bye." Bastien hastily went toward the door, nearly knocking his mother over in the process as she came back into the room.

"Mum," he said, startled. "Are you going to have to go away?"

"Probably, at least for the day, tomorrow. Things are a bit of a mess there. Go on, your father wants to be leaving, just don't mention that I have to travel. I'll tell him when he gets back from taking all of you to London. No sense in him brooding the whole way there and back. Have a good term, and if you need anything, please let us know. Okay, sweetheart?" Bastien stood more than half a foot taller than his mum, but he leaned down and kissed her cheek.

"I will Mum, but you take pretty good care of us already. I know, I can always go to Uncle Remus or Aunt Eva, too. I'm going to go get Ethan ready, he can't shrink his trunk down on his own."

"You are a very good boy. I love you sweetheart. Tell your brothers to come and say goodbye too." Bastien nodded and then headed out. "Well, I need to be getting lunch together for the rest of the kids and us. How about if we get your fancy chair out and head over to the kitchen?"

Anwen raised her hand, and a very elegant arm chair floated over. It was done in the palest of pinks, the upholstery soft and fluffy. Ginny could see that there were controls near the end of the left hand arm rest and a place for her wand to lay next to them. "Okay, up you go," Anwen said before she Levitated Ginny into the seat. The woman reached down and straightened out the girl's pant legs and then did another charm over her. Ginny noticed some interesting feelings in her abdomen, and remembered what it was that Anwen had taken care of. "I figured that you'd feel better if I did it before we were around other people." Ginny smiled, realizing she was mothered by Anwen as much as her children were. It was hard to rectify how different her relationship with her friend was, and how much she hadn't changed at all.

"Sorry that you have to do that for me," the girl said quietly.

"Ginny, it's just something that has to be done. Lily and then my grandmother had to do the charms on me too, and then, finally Sirius. At first, it was humiliating to have anyone dealing with my waste, but…when you care about someone, you do what they need. I don't care, and you shouldn't be embarrassed." Ginny let Anwen's words sink in.

"You remember how to control the chair, right?" Anwen asked, changing the subject and summoning the younger woman out of her feelings.

"Yeah, Sirius did an amazing job with it. I remember," Ginny confirmed as she laid her wand on the pedestal and made the chair levitate forward. They left the lounge, entering the large hallway that contained multiple doors, two fireplaces and a grand double staircase. Three boys came charging down the stairs, followed by their father, distracting the two women from making it to the kitchen.

Sirius looked so much like Ginny remembered him that she could swear he hadn't aged at all. His hair was still long, but less unruly than it had been in the past. He also wore it pulled back, giving a much more distinguished air about him. His facial hair was still in place, but again, trimmed and neater. There was the slightest hint of grey at his temples, and only the faintest of shadows marked where the scar from the battle had run from just above his lip and into his hairline. He wasn't dressed all that differently either: jeans and jumper, and boots that still scraped and scuffed when he walked. He smiled warmly at the her.

"Hey red, how are you feeling?" he asked as he knelt down in front of her.

"A little headache still, and like I need to think for a while, but … I'm good."

"I'm glad, honey. Holler if you need me later," he said before he stood and kissed her crown. "Okay gents, we need to be off. Say goodbye to your mum."

Bastien stepped forward and kissed Anwen on her cheek. "Bye Mum, thanks for the Rune guide, it'll help. Love you, promise to write."

"I know, honey. Try to stay out of the cold. I know, you have a Quidditch match in a few weeks, but please, sweetheart, put a decent warming charm on yourself so you don't get the flu again."

"Yes, Mum." Next up was Draco. He stood just a little shorter than Bastien, but was stockier than his brother. There was a softness to the Draco in this life, Ginny observed, compared to the vile, harsh boy who was her constant tormenter in the past. He hugged his mother and whispered something in her ear which made her smile. Anwen lifted her hand and caressed his cheek.

"You can do anything in life that you want. I believe in you."

"Thanks Mum," he whispered, and Ginny appreciated just how different he was, probably because someone really loved him here.

Last was the youngest of the trio. Standing about even with Anwen, Ethan had his mother's soft brown hair, shaggy and unkempt like his father had kept his, and shockingly pale robin egg blue eyes. Anwen kissed his cheek and the boy balked. "Keep up with your studies, and don't let your older cousin goad you into his goofy plans. Stick with Evan and you'll be fine."

"Mum, I'm not going to listen to Harry. I don't want to do detention with Professor McGonagall again. She's scary at school."

"Good, alright you three, get going, and I'll see you on Friday. Love you all."

There were various affirmations of love, and then Sirius kissed her gently before they all flooed away. Anwen led Ginny down to the kitchen, which was at the back of the house, at the end of the hall.

Preparations for lunch were made, and the five youngest Black children all drifted their way into the kitchen by the time their father returned. Mealtime was a happy affair, and Ginny enjoyed how the family bantered and chatted while eating. After lunch, Sirius took Lilyan, John and Edmund into the den to watch a movie, while Jamie went to read. Little Christianna went down for a nap, as did Anwen. Ginny took the opportunity to go to her room to lie down, but it was just before she fell asleep that she found her diary, and proceeded to spend the afternoon reading about her own thoughts and feelings as if they were someone else's. She also found a letter to herself, the one that she'd written just before they returned to the present. Ginny left it closed, remembering some of what it said, and not wanting to be reminded of the rest.

Dinner ended, and the younger children went off with their Au Pair, Elisabeth, to make sure that their lessons were completed before they returned to school in the morning. At ten and nine, Lilyan and the twins were already enrolled in their magical education - the French system utilized a day school for children aged nine to eleven; they began their residency at Beauxbatons when they were twelve, in the equivalent of their second year. Lilyan was aware that she'd repeat some information when she started at Hogwarts next year, but she very much wanted to go to school with her best friend. Edmund was in the public primary school in Portree. Sirius or Anwen would floo to their home there and drive him into town, repeating the process in reverse in the afternoon. It was what they'd done with all of their children, Ginny learned. During the day, the only one at home was Christianna with one of her parents or Elisabeth, while Ginny was with her tutor. She'd start in her Muggle reception class in the fall.

After supper, Ginny sat sipping tea with Anwen and Sirius in the den, as she had several questions that she needed answered. Unfortunately, Anwen had just told Sirius that she would have to travel to Bosnia tomorrow.

"He called you in, today, even knowing what today was?" Sirius fumed. Ginny was able to search her memories and find that he wasn't always happy about how Anwen's boss, Albus Dumbledore, tried to monopolize her time.

"Sirius, it's an emergency," Anwen tried to calm him. "I shouldn't be gone more than the day. Elisabeth is able to stay with Chrissie, so everything is fine. Now, I'm quite certain that Ginny doesn't want to hear us bickering like a pair of birds fighting over the best twig for their nest."

"No, by all means continue," Ginny teased. "There's something very reassuring about hearing you two go at it. Reminds me of old times."

"Yeah, well…" Sirius grumbled before he folded his newspaper and put it down. "I'm gonna go check on the kids."

"You do that," Anwen said with a knowing smile. "Just don't let them break your back. Edmund and John are too big to ride on you together."

"I wasn't going to…" Sirius tried to protest as he made it to the door, but Anwen looked at him over her glasses and he just threw his head back and laughed.

"Yes, you are. I just vacuumed the sofa, so Padfoot had better not climb up there," she yelled as he left the two women alone. "You'd think a man that charms things for a living could come up with one to keep pet hair from sticking to upholstery."

There was silence between them for a minute, and then Ginny took a deep breath and asked the question that had been plaguing her all afternoon. "Why can't I remember the accident?"

Anwen took off her glasses and laid them aside before she ran her fingers through her hair, pulling more out of the messy bun that was holding it up while she cooked and cleaned.

"You never could, something about the trauma…are you sure you want to know about it?"

"I need to, my feelings are…I just need to know."

"Okay, let me go back to the very beginning, because you need to know how you ended up on the bike that day. Sirius loved, loves, his bikes. He wanted so badly to share that with his boys, all the boys. The five of them: Draco, Bastien, Harry, Ron and Neville, they were always with each other, even as toddlers. We mums traded days so that we'd each have one day with all five of them, but then three other days we'd have a few hours of peace and child-free quiet. They were thirteen when he first started teaching them to ride.

"Neville never liked them, and Ron wasn't all that mechanically inclined, so he didn't spend much time learning to care for them. Bastien could take it or leave it, but Harry and Draco took to the bikes - not surprising really, they're both the most reckless of the fliers too. Sirius bought a new bike in eighty-five, but kept his first one, the '67 Triumph Bonneville. A few years ago he found an identical one at a boot sale, horrible condition, but he didn't care. He was working with the boys to restore the pair of them. He gave each of them one for their seventeenth birthdays.

"We keep all the bikes at Fair Garden, the grounds are bigger, and there's a paved road that weaves through it. We had rules, strict rules, about riding around the grounds. They could ride on the property, but they couldn't leave the estate because they don't have licenses and we had our property set with a special charm - if anyone got hurt within the boundaries, a bell rang in the house. It was done so that when the kids were flying, we'd know if they fell off. Anyway, Harry thought he knew best. He brought you over, and took his bike out of the garage. Neither Sirius nor I were home, he was at a meeting with James, I was at St. Mungo's with Edmund and Christianna, having their checkups. The girls were with my parents for the week, and Draco and Bastien were home with their younger brothers. No one knew that the two of you were here, much less that he took you off the property.

"There was a crash about two miles down the road, Harry lost control of the bike, and the two of your plowed into the side of a car." Ginny gasped at the story, still not remembering, but knowing that the information was very familiar.

"Do you want me to keep going?" the older woman asked.

"I need to know, Anwen," Ginny pleaded and Anwen nodded.

"The driver of the car had a mobile phone, and you were taken to the local clinic, and then flown to a regional medical center. We didn't even know that we should be looking for you for hours. You'd severed your spinal cord, broken both your legs and there were several shattered ribs. Harry had some injuries, but none of his were as serious. It seems that you flew from the bike and into a tree. The Muggles kept you alive, but…I'm so sorry that I didn't get to you sooner," Anwen had a tear running down her cheek.

"I know what happened after I woke up in the hospital," Ginny said quietly. "The only thing I remember about that day was telling Harry that we didn't need to go out…I was happy staying at his house and going out to the pond…he didn't listen to me…" Ginny wasn't speaking to Anwen, she was speaking past her, into the air.

"Why did you go then?"

"I couldn't say no to him. He...he just could persuade me to do anything. All he had to do was stare at me with those green eyes and cock his lip up and say my name..." she sighed, halfway between angry and dazzled. Anwen understood how easy it was to be charmed by the boy you were in love with.

"He…" Ginny continued remembering and muttering her face no longer turned up into a faint smile, "he never took responsibility. Told me that if I'd held on tighter..." the young woman began to cry. "How could he think that it was my fault? It isn't what I wanted...how could he think I would have wanted this?" Ginny looked over at Anwen, but she had no answer.

"I know that's what ultimately drove the two of you apart."

"I'm so confused. I love him, but I'm angry at him and he still hasn't ever really apologized for that day," the redhead mumbled before looking at her guardian square in the face. "I don't know what to feel."

"Do you want to be alone for a while?" Anwen asked and Ginny nodded. Anwen gingerly got to her feet. She took the few steps to the girl, put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "I'll come check on you in a few minutes."

When she opened the door, a medium–sized barn owl flew in. Anwen immediately recognized it as the bird that she'd given her son for Christmas. Butterbeer, oddly named by his littlest sister, flew into the room and she reached out to take the note from her son, only to have the bird fly past her and land on the arm of Ginny's chair. Anwen raised her eyebrows at the turn of events, but then put them back down.

Ginny took the note, gave the bird a bit of biscuit that she had with her tea, and the bird flew out. The girl was smiling at the note, which Anwen chose to ignore. She slipped out of the den and closed the door, meeting her husband in the hallway.

"Was that Bastien's owl?" Sirius asked.

"It was, and it was carrying a note to Ginny." There was no inflection in Anwen's voice, but Sirius still chose to scowl.

"I don't like it," he grumbled, but Anwen ignored it, instead walking over to the left staircase of the pair that went to the second floor of their house. "You're really going to stay out of this?"

"I am," she confirmed, slowly starting to climb the stairs, her left leg going to the higher tread, her right leg following. Step after slow step she climbed away from the first floor. Sirius took two steps at a time and quickly caught up with his wife, pulling her into his arms and carrying her up the stairs and into their room. Anwen giggled as he did, leaning her head down against his chest. "I might be slow, but I do get myself up on my own."

"I know, but I wanted to be able to do this," he said before he kissed her thoroughly. "You're really, really going to let her toy with both their hearts like that?"

"Sirius," Anwen complained as she wiggled out of his arms and went to sit on the edge of the bed, "she isn't toying with anyone. She hasn't communicated with Harry in six months."

"But they're different now," Sirius retorted, "they both have the memories of being married to each other. Harry told me when he got back, he'd marry her in this timeline too, even if they were in school." Anwen hadn't been lucid when Harry and Ginny had come back to their own time, but she'd seen James, Remus and Sirius' memories of their goodbyes, as well as having memorized the letter Ginny wrote her.

"But neither of them was anticipating not being together here, and that's the case. Sirius, she had every right to be upset at him, especially the way he acted after the accident. She needed time and space to heal, and he wouldn't give it to her. I am not getting involved in their love life, not unless she wants me to be. This isn't news to you, this has been my position since the beginning."

Sirius came to sit down next to her. "But what if…what if she decides to go back with Harry. Our son could get his heart broken." Anwen looked at her husband incredulously.

"You're going to keep our children from getting their hearts broken? Sweetheart, that's part of growing up. We have to fall in love, fall out of love, get our hearts broken…it makes it so much sweeter when we do find love," she said with a gentle kiss, her fingers caressing his face. He made a non-committal noise and looked away. "Sirius, we have eight kids. In a few years, protecting them that way will be a full time job. She's nearly an adult, both Bastien and Harry are. I'm staying out of it, and I hope you do the same."

"But, the Harry and Ginny we were friends with…"

"Don't exist here. Those friends didn't grow up with us, and the people who resemble them are only teens. They have a lot more growing up to do." Anwen said calmly, and Sirius flopped back on the bed, making her bounce. She lay back much more smoothly. "We've talked about this, the boy that James and Lily raised, while a good boy, is not the man we were friends with. Our godson would never be able to handle everything the Harry we helped did."

"Yeah, yeah…" he said, running his hands over his face. "What do you think's gonna happen now?"

"I think they're both going to have to sort some things out, but in the meantime, it would appear that she hasn't done anything to dissuade Bastien's kindness. It should be interesting when they're all here this weekend. She wanted to see Harry, but not have the pressure of having to deal with the relationship mess. That's why I invited the whole family to Fair Garden, and told them that we were celebrating the feast day of St. William of Bourges, the patron saint of Paris." Sirius chuckled at the way his wife had gone searching for something to celebrate, thus facilitating a family weekend at their Scottish homestead.

"I told you three months ago this was going to happen," Anwen quietly said.

"Yeah, yeah, you and Moony and Eva. All of you knew that Harry wasn't going to get Ginny back before they came back in time. Do you ever get tired of being right?"

Anwen got the most mischievous smile on her face before sitting up. "Never. Come on, we've got kids to put to bed."

"Then will you put me to bed?" he whispered in her ear, his lips very close to the place that made her heart race when he kissed behind her ear.

"Always, Mr. Black, always."

"I was glad that Sirius and your dad still had these mirrors," Ginny said softly, not really looking at the image of the young man that she was speaking to. It was late in the night in which they had "returned" to this consciousness. Neither could really sleep, and they'd simultaneously contacted the other.

"From what I understand, my little sister and her best friend use these quite a bit," Harry said quietly back.

"Yeah, they're really close." Another awkward silence followed and Ginny wondered why she'd asked Sirius for the mirror now. Part of her wanted to see Harry, talk with him, see how much of him was the man she'd been married to and how much was the boy that she didn't want to be with anymore, because…her reasoning had seemed valid at the time, but now…she just needed to know the truth.

"Gin, honey, how much do you remember?" Harry finally asked her.

"About what? Our lives as the Parkers or about our dating and the accident last year."

"Both, neither…this is all so messed up," Harry said and raked his hands through his hair, making it a bigger mess than it was.

"Look, Harry, I miss you, but I miss the you that shared the flat with me in London. Unfortunately, I'm not the same person that I was then, and this person that I am now...we're both rather frustrated with the other."

"Ginny, sweetheart, that's not it at all. Everything I said after the accident, I didn't mean to say it. I promise…"

"What, that you'll learn to listen to me? You should have been doing that all along. I told you I didn't want to go out that afternoon, I told you that I didn't want to ride on your bike because I wasn't sure that it was safe. Sirius was saying he still had work to do on it, but you had to prove you knew better," Ginny angrily responded, her face getting hard with her strong emotions. "Then, after the accident you … why couldn't you just tell me you loved me when it was over? Why couldn't you sit there and hold my hand and tell me you loved me? It was all that I wanted to hear, but you just kept making excuses." Ginny had to stop so that she could sob.

"If I could go back Ginny, if I could change how I behaved I would," Harry pleaded. "Please, I miss you so much."

"I miss you too," Ginny confessed quietly, "but you hurt me. You never even took responsibility."

"Tell me what to do, tell me how to fix it, Gin," Harry begged. There was another long pause, both of them had tears streaming down their faces. The emotions flowing between the two of them were strong, but by the looks on their faces, they were jumbled too.

"Write me, Harry," Ginny finally said quietly. "Write me, give me room, help me figure out who you are." Harry faintly smiled at her.

"Every day, Gin. You're in my heart, love. You're still in my heart," he promised her.

"You are too," she finally answered before she hastily tapped on the mirror and his image disappeared.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Hi everyone, thanks so much to everyone who is reading and to those who take time to review. Had a great time visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter this week. Love pumpkin juice, which I expected to hate since I don't like pumpkin things generally. Also, got myself a replica of Sirius' wand, enjoyed a cauldron cake and loved the Forbidden journey ride. It was just the best holiday ever. For those of you who are in the US, Happy Thanksgiving. Several of my long time readers have written about my heath. I'm doing okay, a second round of radiation will take place in January, but we remain optimistic that I am on the winning side of this fight with cancer. Thanks so much for your concern and well wishes. Onto the story, and thanks for reading. MNF**

**Chapter 3:**

**Desir**

On Friday evening, Anwen was working away in the kitchen at the Scottish estate, happily singing as she directed her sons and daughters in their chores, and beginning the task of preparing the food for Saturday and Sunday. Meals for twenty-seven just didn't happen, they required a great deal of work. Ginny had completed her studies for the week on Thursday, and then had her father Floo over and take her to the Burrow for a few days. She wanted to see her mum, and spend some time in her old room. She would return in the morning, and Anwen was eager to hear how her time at home had gone. Ginny wanted to see which childhood memories were stronger, and she knew she would have to be in the place to figure that out. The older woman had done a good job at separating the young woman she'd been friends with from the girl who lived in her home. Emotionally, she didn't see them as the same person at all.

As teens, Anwen and Ginny had shared many stories about their childhoods. On the surface, it would seem that they had little in common - Anwen the oldest of five, Ginny the youngest of seven - but it turned out that their families were very similar, and they shared a certain bond because of it. The childhood memories that teen–Ginny had shared were of happiness and a lightness at her home. Unfortunately, the Ginny that lived with Anwen and Sirius in France had experienced something quite different.

Fabian Prewett never healed from his injuries at the battle of the Orkneys, the injury to his spinal cord leaving him paralyzed from the middle of his chest down. He came to live with Molly and Arthur in September of 1980, and still lived there. He could do nothing for himself, and needed Molly to provide him with the most basic of care, even while she was pregnant with Ginny the following year.

Gideon recovered, but needed the company of his brother, so was often found at The Burrow at all times of the day and night, even though he had his own flat. He'd gone back to work for the Ministry, but he too was never quite the same after the battle. Eva, in her professional opinion as a counselor, confided that she thought it was survivor's guilt. He took unnecessary risks in his job, and he'd been killed by a spell that went awry, less than three months before Ginny's accident. Arthur confessed that he was thankful that Ginny had somewhere else to go, for he was certain that the workload would have killed Molly. The older Weasley woman only made it through the days now with the help of mood enhancing potions that were prescribed to her. Arthur and the boys took over most of the care of her brother, leaving Molly to her gardens and cooking.

The lives of their older children had been drastically altered by the injuries as well. Bill Weasley was offered an exceptional job with Gringotts after completing his studies at Hogwarts, but he had to turn it down because the travel that was required was too much for him. He was still needed at home to care for his little brothers and sister. Bill instead went to work for James and Sirius, managing their large shop in Hogsmeade. It had surprised the new Ginny to find out that her brother remained unmarried here as well, rarely having time to date.

Charlie also remained in England, working at the Ministry in the Magical Creatures Department, alongside his new bride, Eira Hodgson-Weasley. The couple had been married the previous fall and were happy in the small flat that they rented in Ottery St. Catchpole. They spent most late afternoons and two nights a week providing care at The Burrow. The new Ginny confided that she thought her parents looked very old, certainly more so than she remembered.

As Anwen worked the bread dough, she couldn't help but wonder what this weekend would bring. She had told her husband and friends that she was adamant about staying out of the Harry and Ginny issue, instead letting the two young people solve the matter for themselves. The entanglement of her second oldest didn't help things; she'd never admit out loud that she was as concerned for Bastien's heart as his father was, but she knew that it was one of those things in adolescence that had to be dealt with. That there was potential for a love triangle between their son, surrogate daughter, and godson only complicated matters. She knew that James and Lily, and to a lesser extent Sirius, were rooting for Harry and Ginny to reconcile now that they were carrying both sets of memories; Remus sided with her, while Eva thought that it might not be possible for them to ever fully integrate both sets of memories, and might be better off with different people, thus beginning a relationship with a clean slate.

She stopped midway through punching down the dough, and sighed aloud, wondering if having all of these people in her home was just playing with fire.

January in northern Scotland is known for it's blistering wind, snow and frigid temperatures, not weather that one generally would be out walking in, which is why the locals of Hogsmeade were so very surprised to look out on this January afternoon and see seven boys walking down the middle of High Street, where sleigh runners and wheels from carts had reduced the snow to a few inches, instead of the drifted feet that it could reach along the buildings and around tree trunks. They each had a stuffed rucksack on their back. For the locals, with the frivolity of Yule, Christmas and the New Year past, it was now time to settle in and wait out the bitter chill and dark of winter, and the boys passing caused them shake their heads in wonder.

They boys all wore the robes of Hogwarts Houses, four in the gold and red of Gryffindor, two in the blue and bronze of Ravenclaw and a lone black and green of Slytherin House. The single Slytherin in the group still bristled that he was alone in his House, not with either of his brothers nor his friends. When he had been Sorted seven years ago, he begged for another Sorting, going so far as to write home to ask his father to make the headmaster move him. His father had refused to give into the child's pleas and instead reminded him that his familial heritage was in this House, and he was following his namesake, who had been in the House a generation before. He could be an honest and upright man, just like the last Black that had worn the green and silver badge. Draco Regulus Black still didn't like that he was a Slytherin, however now only months from leaving Hogwarts, he was mature enough to see that he was more than just the House that he lived in.

"You want to remind me again why we're walking into Hogsmeade, instead of just Flooing from Professor Lupin's quarters?" Ron asked as he pulled his cloak tighter around himself in an attempt to keep the cold, biting wind away. He'd given himself a warming charm, but it didn't seem to be working.

"Uncle Remus went home after lunch, he didn't have a class this afternoon. Before you ask, we're walking because we can't Disapparate from within the Hogwarts grounds, Mum won't let us Side-Along our brothers and Professor Lupin is letting us use his Floo," Bastien told him with a disgusted tone.

"You don't have to come home this weekend. It isn't your mum that's got everyone celebrating...something." Draco had talked with his father on their charmed mirrors the night before, but even Sirius couldn't completely explain Anwen's need to celebrate the feast day for the patron saint of Paris. He just told his son to go with it. Draco wasn't about to complain, however, it meant that he got to spend the weekend with his girlfriend who had her own apartment at his parents' home in France. Draco had every intention of Flooing away from the Scotland estate and spending his time in a much smaller party.

"Yeah, but if your mum is going to celebrate something, that means she's been cooking," Ron answered. Both Neville and Harry swatted his head. "What, she makes good food!"

"Ron, unless you get a job as a food taster, you've got to think about something other than eating," Evan Potter teased the older Gryffindor.

"Are there jobs as food tasters?" The redhead immediately perked up at the idea, the rest of them groaned at him.

The smallest of the boys slipped on the ice, and was immediately caught by his big brothers who had flanked him for the walk out of Hogwarts. It was rare that students as young as second or third years were allowed home for visits, but even rarer was being allowed to leave if your parent hadn't come to school to get you. However, when your parents were the Blacks or Potters - universally hailed as the saviors of the wizarding world - and the headmistress was a woman that you called "Grandma Mimi" when you weren't at school, certain rules were bent for you. Ethan Black and Evan Potter knew that they were getting special treatment by taking this trip, and were thankful for it. Ethan was particularly happy his big brothers didn't let him slip and fall into the horse dung that littered the road they were navigating. He did not want to explain that to his mum when she had a house full of people.

The amassed party turned off of the main street and onto one of the side roads, far less well traveled, and their feet disappeared into the unpacked snow. They were all happy when they reached the small yellow and white cottage that the Lupin family lived in, and were even happier to see that the path that led from the road to the front steps had been cleared. Harry knocked on his uncle's door, before rapidly stuffing his hands back in his pockets. He'd lost another pair of gloves, not entirely sure what happened to them, but he assumed that when the snow around the Quidditch pitch melted, he'd find all the pairs that he'd lost since last fall. He wore them out to the pitch, but then found that he'd lost them while flying, since he wore his Seeker gloves regardless of the weather.

A little girl, who could have been mistaken for a living china doll, opened the door. Blonde curls framed her round face, her skin was the color of cream, and her cheeks were as red as apples, her brown eyes as dark and deep as chestnuts warming in their pan. Ellie-Belle Lupin was a beautiful little girl, and as Harry looked down at his six–year old cousin, he had no doubt that she would one day be a heartbreaker.

"Mummy, Daddy, they're finally here," she yelled into the house, alerting her parents to the boys' arrival. "Well, come on in, having the door open is making my nose cold."

"Ellie, you sound just like your mum," Ethan told her as he walked in. She stuck her tongue out at him in response. "Don't stick your tongue out at me!"

This time the little girl opened her mouth and started to sing a simple tune. In response all the boys stopped and stared at her, their eyes glossing over and their mouths hanging open. As the granddaughter of a mermaid, Ellie-Belle's voice was partially enchanted. The sound of it was enough to make boys and men stop what they were doing and listen. They also entered a highly suggestive state when they heard it. As the seven boys stared at her slack-jawed, and the little girl contemplated how to word the request that she not be picked on anymore, the only man who was immune to her singing entered the lounge.

"Eleanor," Professor Lupin's voice resonated in the room, causing both the girl to stop and the boys to shake loose the stupor that she'd created. "You've been warned about using your voice that way."

"But Daddy," she complained, "Ethan said that I sounded like Mum." Her feigned innocence was disheartening to her father, as he dreaded what she would be like in a decade. It was the first time in years he was sorry that he wasn't considered frightening by the general population anymore.

"Well, sweetie, singing like her isn't going to ever dissuade the boys from telling you that," father reminded daughter, making her scowl. "Go get your brothers and mum, so we can leave." Remus Lupin rubbed his temples with his hands, mentally acknowledging that being a werewolf was much, much easier than being a father.

As was usual when the Marauders and their families got together, mealtime was ruckus and somewhat overwhelming. There were things dropped, glasses spilled, arguments of how many vegetables needed to be eaten and a dispute about who would get the last slice of chocolate cake. With the repast over, the five oldest teens retired to the third floor and the double–sized bedroom that Draco and Bastien shared. While the brothers could have had their own rooms, they preferred to share the space. To accommodate their friends, Anwen and Sirius had two additional sets of bunk beds tucked into the corners of the room. The room was decorated in a variegation of blues, with a huge Puddlemere United banner magically attached to the ceiling, creating a sort of canopy over the brothers' beds.

Ron flopped on the bottom bunk of the right set, while Harry lounged on the bottom left. Neville took the bunk above Harry, while the brothers reclined on their own beds across the way. Anwen had purchased blankets for each of the boys' beds from their favorite Quidditch teams, and was quite glad that orange on Ron's bed, purple on Harry's and pale blue of Neville's bed couldn't be seen from the door, as they all clashed wildly.

Record albums of the Weird Sisters, Broken Broomsticks, and some other wizarding bands were strewn across the floor, and the enchanted turntable was playing as loud as the parents would let it go without coming upstairs and reprimanding them, or worse, loud enough for their almost eleven year old sister and her best friend to want to come and join them. Draco had his father's electric guitar out, and was practicing strumming along without being plugged into the amp. He was getting quite adept, and hoped to show his mother that he was serious about wanting an instrument of his own. He was also glad that he wasn't plugged in, as his mistakes weren't heard by anyone else. It made the evening passable, since his girlfriend had explained that she was dining with her parents tonight, and there was no point in him coming to visit. He would have to wait until tomorrow to see her.

"I can't believe that you touched Marcy Mulehuller," Neville said with an astonished grin. "Man, she's got a very nice set of…" he juggled his hands in front of himself, unable to say the word and blushing from his mere insinuation.

"Neville, Neville, I tell you, it's being on the Quidditch team," Ron replied looking quite smug. "Girls just go for athletic guys."

"Yeah, I'm just not sure that going to a broom closet with a girl that's gone with every other Quidditch player from every House is much of an accomplishment," Harry reminded him. "Honestly, she prides herself on her record; she even took my younger brother. He's three years younger than her, for Merlin's sake."

"Harry, you're wrong, she hasn't been with Everett Ang," Bastien corrected him, bringing up the small fifth year who was Seeker for the Ravenclaw team. Everett had the nickname of Dragon Breath around the school, so it wasn't a surprise that Marcy had avoided him. "Draco hasn't snogged her either," the Ravenclaw Beater added and his Slytherin Seeker brother nodded. "And I've never been to a closet with her."

"Draco's got a girlfriend, so he doesn't count. Ev well, dragon breath is enough of a reason, and you, you're like a monk this year," Ron teased back. "Honestly, the girls follow you around like you're James Dern or something."

"James Dean," Neville corrected him. "Those old movies that Mr. Black showed us starred James Dean."

"Whatever, they still follow him everywhere. From the stories that we've heard, you're almost as popular as your dad was in school. Man, if I had girls interested in me like that, I'd spend every free minute in a broom closet," the redhead postulated. Bastien and Draco glanced at each other and shared a look. As close as twins, there were no secrets between the brothers. Draco knew exactly what was going through his brother's mind and what was in his heart, and he didn't want to get involved in it, but he also knew that this conversation needed to go in another direction or it could get ugly.

"Yeah, well, Dad's behavior broke Mum's heart," Draco interjected. "Just because you can do something doesn't always mean you should."

"But honestly, Bas man, why the whole eunuch this year?" Harry asked and Bastien picked at the Puddlemere United afghan that his grandmother had knit for him when he was a baby. He always kept the blanket on his bed and refused to get rid of it, not matter how holey it got.

"I just," he paused. "I guess that I don't really want to just date anymore. I want something more serious, and I haven't found the right girl."

"Wait a minute," Harry spoke with astonishment, even as he crawled to the end of the bed and stared at his friend, "you're saying that you'd like to settle down?"

"Harry, we're done at Hogwarts in a few months. Do you realize that my mum was married at seventeen? Your parents were only eighteen? I guess…I just figure that if we need to be thinking about what we're going to do with our lives, maybe we should be thinking about who we want to spend them with too." There was a soulful look in the boy's grey eyes that struck a chord with both Neville and Draco.

"I agree," his brother quietly added. "When I think about the rest of my life, I can't imagine Elisabeth not being part of it."

"I like that idea, Bas," Neville commented. "Sort of makes the whole growing up thing more real. I haven't found the right girl, but I'd like to think that she's out there and when I find her, I'll know it."

"I can't believe the three of you," Ron groaned. "Come on, we're supposed to be having fun, not contemplating our existences here guys. It's a weekend away from school. We're not going to get many of them before the work for NEWT's really sets in."

"Yeah, yeah," Draco said as he put his guitar down and took the initiative to change the subject. "Since I won't be here tomorrow night, how about some poker tonight?"

"That's much more like it," Ron happily replied. "Firewhiskey too? We're all of age."

"I'll go ask Dad," Bastien said, getting up. He knew that there were at least two full bottles in the liquor cabinet. The lanky young man jogged down the two flights of stairs, chuckling at the antics of his younger sisters and brothers and cousins split up into different rooms, the silliest being his baby sister, Chrissy, and Brynne uncontrollably giggling at something. The tinkling noise was infectious, and he was tempted to stand in the doorway and enjoy their happiness. He thought about his choice again when he considered what his brother and friends would say to his hanging with four– and five–year old girls. They'd be taking the mickey out of him for weeks.

He found the adults in the conservatory, his mum laughing with his aunts on one side of the great room, while Dad and his uncles were in deep discussion on the other. After promising that no one would get drunk, nor would they attempt to fly in the house after consuming Firewhiskey - the memory of Draco's seventeenth birthday party still vivid in the adults' minds - permission was given for him to take the rest of the bottle that the men had already started. Half a decanter was better than none.

Just before he started back up the stairs, Bastien was surprised by the arrival of the grey and brown eagle owl he recognized as Ginny's. He wasn't expecting a letter from her tonight, especially not since she'd be here tomorrow. He took the letter from the bird and offered her his arm, and while she rested, he walked to the kitchen to find a treat, and then let her fly to the large roost in the mudroom. At the moment, it held all four of the Black family birds. Once the speckled bird was sufficiently fed and headed to the nest, Bastien opened the note and read the few lines from the girl who lived with his family, and smiled at her words. He stuffed the note in his pocket and headed back up the stairs, whistling the whole way.

The young man returned to his room with five glasses, the half–full decanter, and a wide smile. He tossed the note to his brother, who opened it and read the few lines of fine script.

"That is awesome! I told her that she'd do fine," Draco exclaimed as he tossed the note on his dresser and pulled out the deck of cards and poker chips that he had tucked beneath his socks.

"She just needed someone to boost her confidence," Bastien responded, "and confidence boosting is something the Black brothers know all about." He bumped fists with his near-twin and the two set about getting things set up.

"Who was the note from?" Neville casually asked as he jumped down from the top bunk.

"Ginny," Draco replied, "she was worried about a test that she had to take in Astronomy on Wednesday. Since she flaked out last Sunday before we went back to school, she was having trouble remembering some of her stuff. We worked with her on the mirror Tuesday night and she aced the thing. She just sent us a note to thank us. Told her that living with us gave her an edge in Astronomy, it's in the Black blood."

"Huh," Ron said as he moved from the bed to the floor, "she used to hate the subject. Pleaded with Mum to let her drop it."

Harry became very quiet, sitting on the bed, watching his friends get ready. Memories hit him like raindrops, pelting his face and body in a rapidly strengthening barrage. He could hear her voice, feel her skin, taste the sweat on her lips and the sweetness of her tongue when he kissed her. He remembered late nights and early mornings alone in bed with her, how he'd learned what it was that made her passions rise and what he could do to prolong her enjoyment. These weren't the memories of when they were together before the accident, the moments of that summer where two innocents were fumbling their way through the shallow waters of intimacy. These memories that Harry could almost mistake as real were of a husband and wife who spent months sharing themselves, and who learned how to love their partner. He closed his eyes and let the intoxicating emotions flow over him, nearly allowing himself to be pulled away with them. Fingers snapping in front of his eyes interrupted the solitude of remembering.

"Uh, Harry, you there?" Ron asked as he annoyingly kept flicking his thumb over his third finger, even after Harry's eyes opened. The Gryffindor Seeker reached out quickly and wrapped his long digits around his friend's to make the annoying motion and sound stop.

"Yeah," Harry snipped. "You can stop that now." He released Ron's hand.

"Well, you were zoned out there. Wasn't sure if it was going to be like when you passed out in your oatmeal," Ron teased back.

"How do you know about that?" Harry was suddenly defensive. He didn't want people to know about his fainting spell at home over the past weekend. It wasn't anyone's business.

"Your brother," Neville explained. "He was telling the whole House in the common room on Sunday night when you didn't come back with him. Said you contracted some rare illness. We figured he was wrong when you were there in time for Defense on Monday. Why weren't you on the train?"

Harry felt torn. Part of him, he assumed it was the part that had grown up in this life, wanted to make a smart comment and brush it all off as nothing. The other part of him wanted to confide in his friends, tell them how much he was missing Ginny and needed to find a way to get her back - especially if she was close enough to be writing the Blacks about her school work. Unfortunately, his mouth chose to speak before his mind had really ended the debate.

"I just had some bug, Mum got all wonky and wanted to make sure I wasn't sick when she sent me back to school."

"Yeah, I get that," Ron said, "I had the sniffles when I got back right before Christmas, and Dad and Bill both made me stay in bed and take that horrible "Dr. Ittlebadd's" All Purpose Concoction."

"Yeah, well I'd take that over what my gran did to Dad when he was sick as a kid. Apparently her cure-all for everything was some Muggle liquid called "cod liver oil" and magical enemas," Neville said with a shudder. "Whenever we baulk at getting potions, he reminds us." The rest of the boys "eewed" and "yucked" in response, effectively ending the conversation.

Draco dealt while Bastien poured the Firewhiskey, reiterating that they needed to keep from getting drunk, lest they have to deal with his dad, Uncle James, and Professor Lupin for the rest of the weekend. As usual for the bunch, they didn't bet for money - it wasn't fair to Ron who never had as much gold as the others did - they bet things like having to straighten up someone's trunk, service another boy's broom or do some dreaded assignment. There were even bets about helping younger siblings with undesirable tasks, like taking them flying or do after-meal chores.

Poker on this night went very differently, as Neville was ahead and Harry was dead last in earnings. He'd already been forced to service Draco, Bastien and Ron's brooms in the next month, write a Potions essay for Neville, and have a tea party with Chrissy, Ellie-Belle and Brynne tomorrow afternoon. His friends finally decided that it wasn't fair to keep playing with him, as he was on too much of a losing streak.

"Harry, man, what is up with you tonight?" Draco asked, cleaning up the cards and the chips. "You haven't lost this bad in…well, I don't remember when you've lost this bad." Bastien filled their glasses again, thus emptying the bottle and wondering if he could magically replenish it.

Harry took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. His parents had given him permission to go to Diagon Alley this weekend and get rid of his spectacles and have the permanent vision charm that had been developed in the last few years done to his eyes. He couldn't wait to get rid of the offensive rims. He couldn't figure out just how much to tell them, but he needed their advice.

"It's….look I can't get my mind off Ginny. I want her back," he confessed. The room was silent. Neville looked at him like he was off his rocker, and Ron's face turned bright red. Draco furrowed his brow in response, moving his head ever so slightly so that he could see his brother out of his peripheral vision. He caught Bastien's hands curled into fists and the stoic look on his face.

"You sure have a funny way of showing it, mate," Ron snapped at him. "Exactly how many girls have you…whatevered this fall?"

"It wasn't that many…" Harry tried to protest.

"Harry, we're your dorm mates. Your tie was on the doorknob more than any of ours, and there weren't that many repeat visitors," Neville said harshly. Harry knew that what he was saying was right, and he hated that he was being called out even by polite Neville. This Harry, the older and wiser one, wasn't very proud of his actions. He kept thinking about lessons from the past, and his late night flight on the motorbike with Sirius. At the time it didn't make sense to Harry, Sirius saying that he continued to feel guilty over how he'd acted in school and the pain it caused Anwen. He got it now, how it was you could feel badly about something that you could never go back and change, and how the knowledge of living with the pain that you'd caused could be overwhelming.

Harry had bedded a fair number of girls over the fall, and he justified his actions by saying that he was a "free man." He'd always been popular with the fairer sex, it didn't hurt that his parents were famous, he was good looking, rich, smart and was the youngest Seeker that Hogwarts had known in generations. This was the first year that he'd allowed himself to really play on his popularity, and he knew that he could have had three times as many "encounters" as he'd had. Technically he might have been free, but his heart was never available to give to those girls. His heart belonged with Ginny, regardless of how she might feel about him. New Harry wasn't really proud of old Harry's actions. If he wanted his Gin back, he was going to have to make some changes.

"Harry, you're my best mate, but…you're talking about my sister here. What happened over the summer…" the boy paused, working to get hold of his emotions, "…you can't just sweep that under the carpet and pretend that it never happened. Ginny isn't ever going to be the same."

"I get that," Harry replied, frustrated, his hands going into his hair, unintentionally disrupting the charm he'd put on it this morning. "But you know, it wasn't a cake walk for me either…"

The statement was a bit too much for Bastien, who had remained too stoic and still. If anyone had been paying attention, he would have known that it would take very little to cause him to explode.

"How dare you!" he yelled, surprising the rest of the lifelong friends. "You were practically unharmed! You never asked for her forgiveness and then you didn't say anything when she moved into OUR house in France! What the hell makes you think that you've got the right to even attempt to win her back?"

"Bas, man, calm down," Neville tried to placate him, but the Black boy wanted nothing doing with it.

"No, I won't calm down. He's been a cad all fall and now he thinks he has a right to the girl whose heart he broke?"

"I still love her!" Harry yelled, standing up and towering over his friend. Bastien rose, and the two were toe to toe.

"You have a rather funny way of showing it," he threw back, venom in his words.

"What was I supposed to do? Sit around and mope until she'd speak to me?"

"No, but you didn't have to see if you could set the speed record for the number of girls you could shag in one semester. It was disgusting to watch you be an arse."

Neville and Ron just stared at the friends, shocked and surprised by this turn of events. A little voice in the back of Ron's mind also noted that it was weird that Bastien was defending his sister so vehemently.

"An arse? Look who's talking. Up until this year you were quite the ladies' man."

"I dated, Harry, but never more than one at a time, and I didn't sleep with them all. In fact, I was only with Susan, and that was after we'd been together for a year. But you knew that, didn't you?" The argument was turning ugly, and the last thing that the boys needed was to alert their siblings or parents to their discord. Draco tossed a Silencing charm up, knowing that he wasn't supposed to do magic in the house, but figured that the situation called for it.

"Look, I could care less who you did or didn't do," Harry retorted, "but the fact of the matter is, I still love Ginny and I want to find a way to get her back."

"That's all fine and good, but I doubt that she loves you."

"What difference does it make to you?" Harry asked, his face wrinkling with irritation and surprise. Neville and Ron were still stunned, unsure where the conversation was going, but quite certain that they didn't want to get involved in it. Thankfully, Draco decided that it was time for a cooler head to intercede and stood and got between his brother and friend.

"Both of you, cool down, if you're acting like Neanderthals when she gets here tomorrow, she won't speak to either of you."

"What's a knee-and-her-tall? Who's tall?" Ron asked dumbly. "Ginny's pretty short."

"Neanderthal, the first humanoids," Neville explained and Ron still looked at him blankly. "Cave-men," he finally amended and Ron seemed to get it. "I am so glad that I went to Primary school when I was young."

The two raven–haired boys stared at each other until Harry relented and turned, exhaling loudly while he massaged his temples.

"Argh," he cried out, "this is driving me barmy. Honestly, guys, what am I going to do? I still love her." He flopped back down on his bunk, and Bastien and Draco did the same, Ron and Neville shifted around on the floor so that they could see both sides of the room. There was an uncomfortable silence that was finally broken by Bastien getting up and walking into the attached loo, shutting the door and turning on the shower.

"What's his problem?" Harry asked.

"Look, Harry," Draco spoke, "while you've been enjoying your freedom, Ginny's been learning to do some very basic things again. We know what day to day life is like for her, and it hasn't been easy. Just…just be careful where you tread, okay? She's very special to us and to all of our sisters and brothers. She's got all of her Weasley brothers, but she's also got a bunch of Blacks that think of her as theirs, too."

"Now that is one frightening group of people to have to convince," Neville said, thinking about having to win all of their approvals.

"Yeah, I wouldn't want to cross Lilyan. I think she's more frightening than Bill," Ron added which caused the other two boys to laugh, but Harry's stomach sank. For all intents and purposes, Ginny now had fourteen sisters and brothers who would all share their opinions, not to mention four parents. The task suddenly felt daunting.

Harry nodded quietly, still unsure of what exactly was going on around him, but before he could ask another question, his brother Evan and Ethan Black appeared at the door, asking if the five seventh years wanted to join the pair in watching scary movies downstairs on the magically enhanced television. Draco and Neville jumped at the chance to do anything else, and as they filed out of the room, the blonde poked his head into the loo to tell his brother when they were going. There was one thing that Draco Black was absolutely sure of - he couldn't wait to leave for France in the morning.

At nine o'clock, after all but the eldest of the children were in bed, the adults gathered again in the Conservatory.

"I can't believe that they're in there watching that movie," Sirius said. "Honestly, what man in his right mind would wear a purple smoking jacket. It doesn't make you look scary, it makes you look dandy. I don't care if you're a vampire or not."

"Oh, you're just jealous because Lilyan called him cute. Until now, the only man who she thought was handsome was you," Anwen teased her husband as she rested her head on his shoulder. Sirius grumbled at her in response, but didn't contradict her. It caused both Eva and Lily to titter along with their friend.

"So, have you figured out what they remember?" Remus asked. No one needed the subject of the sentence to be identified, he was referring to Harry and Ginny.

"I'm fairly certain that they remembered everything when they woke up," James replied. "At least Harry did. He filled fourteen phials with memories and used nearly six feet of parchment writing things down. I quizzed him on some of his magic, and he remembers his Society lessons. He even asked about the armor and the capes. I explained that everything was safely put away in the Parker family vault, very heavily warded."

"Ginny was the same way," Sirius explained. "I reminded her that she might have to 'play dumb' for her tutor in certain subjects. She was barely passing history before, and now she's a font of knowledge on ancient wizarding cultures. He might get suspicious."

"I can't imagine…I mean they were married there. Are we sure that they're not married here?" Lily asked hopefully. Of the six of them, she was the most adamant about her son and the youngest Weasley getting together. She felt that their relationship was destined to be.

"Well, since they were married while she was underage," Remus started, "permission had to be granted for the union by her parents. Since they have no memory of granting the permission, and they never had a ceremony in this time-line, they are most assuredly not married."

"There wasn't any change to her physical condition either, was there?" Lily again asked, and Anwen shook her head.

"I was hopeful that perhaps there would be some improvement to her back and legs, but no, she saw the Healer on Tuesday morning, and while she is getting stronger and does have better muscular control, there hasn't been any regeneration of her spinal column. You keep working, Lil. If anyone can come up with a cure, I'm sure that it's you," Anwen told her best friend while putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I keep trying," Lily said sadly, "just haven't quite gotten there." She sighed aloud and then looked up at her friends. "I do hope that this weekend is a new start for them." Looks passed between the friends, but it was finally Eva who spoke up.

"You know, there's still a whole lot of unresolved anger between them," she said, the counselor in her taking over. "They are very much liable to yell and scream at each other when they're first in a room together. They're certainly not going to move forward until they've dealt with everything that's in their past."

"Plus, I hate to bring this up," Remus said quietly, "but I think that there might be other issues that have to be taken care of as well. Since they broke up this summer, they've both been leading rather interesting lives." Remus didn't really want to come out and speak poorly of Harry, but his parents did need to know.

"If you're talking about Harry's dating life this fall," James said solemnly, "we already know. His brother wrote home about it, rather embarrassed of him." Lily looked away. "He's broken quite a few hearts, and he didn't have a little friend running around cleaning up after him." Sirius kissed his wife's head, knowing that she'd smoothed things over with many of his ex's while they were in school.

"How could he be so stupid?" Lily seethed. Everyone was surprised at her outburst. Lily had always been very protective of her son, now she was the first one to openly show contempt.

"He's a boy, Lil, a handsome boy who is the son and godson of some rather famous Hogwarts playboys," Eva responded. "He suffered a great emotional trauma, and he was seeking comfort because of it. I'm not excusing his behavior, but, clinically, it's quite normal."

"But Ginny didn't run out and start dating every boy she could find," Harry's mother complained back.

"Lil, she was living with us in Quimper. It's not a very large town, and it's got a tiny magical community. She sees few people outside of her tutors, both of whom are, well, aged; Elisabeth and our family," Anwen stated.

"Do you really think that she would have behaved the same way if she were at school?" Lily asked rhetorically. "We all know that she is too good of a girl to have ever done something this stupid and reckless. I thought my son was the same." Tears began to leak down her face.

"He's still a good boy, Lil," Anwen tried to comfort her.

"I know," she quietly replied. "This," she added, her hands flailing in front of her, "it's going to follow him for years."

"Does he know that gossip papers got hold of the story?" Remus asked. All fall there had been stories from students about his behavior. Thankfully, the gossip weeklies were not permitted on school grounds.

"I certainly wasn't going to tell him," Lily scoffed.

"I plan to speak with him about it when I take him out tomorrow for his eyes," James said quietly. "Can I plan on a little Marauder support?"

"Sure," Sirius added. "This is one of those things that I have far more knowledge about than you. Nothing worse than showing up to have your kid be born, and realize the medi-witch that's assisting is someone you shagged and you can't remember her name." There were giggles from the women and chortles from the men at his comment. Everyone had long since gotten over Sirius' past, and saw him for who he was now.

"I thought that was when you came to the hospital when we found out I was pregnant with Lilyan?" Anwen corrected him.

"You're right, but the embarrassment is still the same."

"Ginny has asked me about how I dealt with it, even though she remembers our conversations from when I was young. I can't help but think that she's trying to cope with his actions in her own way," Anwen explained leaving out one important bit of information, which Sirius decided needed to be brought up among the adults. He put a silencing charm on the door before he spoke. It could very well become an issue this weekend and he wanted the adults prepared.

"Look, you all need to know, Ginny and Bas have gotten close. They write each other, often study together over the mirrors. Neither of us think that it's anything more than just a deep friendship, but…well, she's written him every night this week, and I saw her owl roosting with our birds here, which means she must have sent him a note tonight." There was no reaction on the faces of James and Remus, but Eva had a slight smile cross her lips. Lily, however, furrowed her brow at the announcement.

"How could you let that happen?"

"Lil, we didn't do or not do anything," Sirius explained. "When she first got here, she couldn't do anything for herself and I hadn't gotten her chair properly charmed. She relied on Draco, Bastien and me to get her from room to room. They all worked on their summer studies together, and it just continued once school started."

"But you knew that her memories would return this January. How could you not stop this thing from growing between them?" Lily's irritation was coming through loud and clear.

"Lilylove," James warned her, and she put her head in her hands nearly succumbing to more tears. Remus and Eva sympathized with her while Anwen and Sirius looked pained at this turn of events. Remus finally broke the silence.

"Just because they remember, doesn't mean that it'll be enough. Look, we've had eighteen years to prepare for this, they've only had a week. Let's just see how things go tomorrow when she gets here. Padfoot, thanks for warning us about Bastien. Hey, we're all in uncharted territory here, so may I make a suggestion?"

"Of course, Moony," James acquiesced. "You're the one who comes up with those brilliant chess strategies, what's your plan here?"

"We all just relax and let the kids be kids. If Harry and Ginny are going to get back together, then they're the ones that have to figure this out. I know it'll be hard, but it's part of growing up."

"Why do you have to be so logical?" Lily somewhat unhappily replied.

"Someone had to be with these two as friends," he quipped back and they all chuckled and nodded. "Wait, aren't all the boys sharing the same room upstairs? If Ginny makes some kind of choice, or even hints at one, that could make the guys' room a rather uncomfortable place to sleep tomorrow night."

"We've got one empty room left," Anwen said with a flip of her hand, "and no one is in with Edmund right now, someone could always bunk with him."

"Wait, you mean that you've almost used every room in your fourteen bedroom estate?" Remus quizzed his friend, glad to have another topic of conversation.

"Only when all of you and your kids are here," Sirius quipped back.

"Does that mean that your family is complete, or are you just going to build an addition?" Eva joked.

"Oh, we've still got the two cottages, so there are another six bedrooms that could be used if needed. Our motto is 'never say never,'" Anwen teased back.

"You wouldn't actually get pregnant again, would you, Anwen?" Eva asked, somewhat horrified. Being pregnant was never easy for the youngest of the friends, her size and injuries had made growing and birthing her children a delicate process. When Edmund was born, it was strongly suggested that she not put herself through that again.

"Oh no," she hastily replied. "I love my children, and I love that I was given the gift of birthing my beloved's offspring, but…never again. However, situations like the one that brought us Chrissie happen all the time."

"So, you're just going to keep adopting children until you fill all of those rooms?" Remus teased.

"No, but if another child finds their way to us, we would never put them out," Sirius answered and they all nodded in understanding. "So, who beside Puddlemere is going to make the finals this year?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note: Hi everyone, updating a day early because I have the time today. Here's chapter four, before everyone gets upset at Harry here and wants to write and tell me how horrid he is, I already know I wrote it. He's way out of canon in this story and not even the same as the Harry from "Continuum". If it's too much for you to take, I understand and thanks for reading this far. On a happier note, I completed my National Novel Writing Month task and have written over 50K words on my original story called "Flight". You can read it on my website, if anyone is interested and it will be available for purchase sometime next year. I was asked how long this story will be, and I don't envision it being more than 10 or 11 chapters, most of which are already written. I know it's short, but I want it done before the next round of radiation in January. Deep thanks to Arnel, my amazing beta. She has truly made me a better writer with her gentle prodding and proliferation of notes. Enjoy and I really do appreciate everyone who reads this story, as hard as it is to read sometimes. Have a great day. MNF**

**Chapter 4:**

**"Encoumbrer"**

"Mummy, when will Ginny be here?" Chrissie Black pestered her mother for the fifth time in as many minutes. Anwen sighed loudly, putting her hands on her hips and looking down at her daughter.

"Any minute now. Daddy and Ron went to go and get her from her Mummy and Daddy's house. Put your bottom back into your chair and finish your porridge." The little girl squirmed so that her bum was in the chair and scooped up her breakfast and took a bite.

"Should I's eat, too, 'Ntie Winnie?" The woman had to work not to laugh at the youngest Potter.

"If you want to get up from the table, Brynne, then yes, eat your breakfast too."

"'Kay," the little girl replied before she shoveled more than a spoonful into her mouth, and down her shirt. Anwen shook her head and turned to look at the spitfire's mother.

"How do you not laugh all day at her?"

"I do," Lily plainly responded. "Okay, is there anyone that we haven't fed yet?"

"RJ and John are still sound asleep up there, and Ethan and Evan are out running, so we'll need to feed them when they come in. Apparently they're worried about not being in shape when they have a match, come April."

"Those boys and their Quidditch," Lily responded, slicing some more bread and then covering it with a cloth. They'd already gone through a large pot of porridge, a whole pot of Strawberry Jam, one and half loaves of bread, three dozen eggs, two pounds of bacon, two gallons of pumpkin juice, numerous pots of tea and more apples, oranges and grapefruits than they bothered to count. Anwen and Lily had eaten first, then proceeded to feed the rest of the family. Now they were now slicing and dicing things for the lunch and supper meals.

"I think I'll need more bread. I thought that six loaves would be enough, but if we use this much at every meal..." Anwen mused aloud, making her best friend laugh.

"Our kids are like locusts...decimate the landscape as they fly in, eat, and then fly away."

"Well, I'll head to the baker down the road and buy another six," Anwen quipped in response. Eva came in, followed closely by Draco, who nearly pushed his aunt over in his hurry.

"I'm going now, Mum. I promise Elisabeth and I will be here for supper. Six, right?"

"Yes, Draco. Apparate safe," Anwen yelled toward the door without looking up.

"No, Mum, I was planning to Splinch myself," he answered in that ingratiating teen way. Anwen looked over her glasses at her son and he just rolled his eyes before leaving the room as quickly as he'd come in.

"I can't believe he's almost grown. Where did my little boy go?" his mother sighed.

"Remember Winnie, they will always need you, grown up or not," Eva said, leaning her chin on her friend's shoulder so that she could steal a slice of the peaches that Anwen was preparing for pasties.

"Yeah, yeah. I just hope that he isn't forty and coming home to have me charm his laundry still. It's a good thing that there are house-elves at school, or else all of his shirts would be mint green." Draco had attempted to do his own laundry, and had cleaned his Quidditch uniform along with his white dress shirts and the shirts, well…thankfully Mum was able to fix them. Anwen remembered her mother telling her that her brother, Wyn, had done the same thing in the wash when he'd gone to university - except that his clothes were all pink.

"I 'member that, Mummy," Chrissie spoke up from between her bites of porridge, "he looked silly."

"That he did, honey. Good thing we were able to fix his laundry, huh?"

"Yeah!" the little girl cheered. "Mummy even let me do the spell, which made Draco feel stupid since the 'baby' fixed his clothes." She had said the word baby with great emphasis, making both syllables sound like their own words.

"You no baby, 'rissie," Brynne added her mouth still partially full of food. She swallowed and then spoke again. "You a big girl. You four!" The precocious child held up five fingers instead of four, and Jamie Black leaned over the table and bent down one of her fingers, thus correcting the sign. The three adults, Jamie and Eva-Claire and Bastien who'd just entered the room were all laughing at the littlest girls' antics.

"Any word yet?" Bastien anxiously asked and Anwen sighed and shook her head.

"Heavens, you would think you children hadn't seen Ginny in months, rather than days. No, she's not here yet, but she should be here soon. Where are Harry and Neville?"

"Neville is writing a note, I think to a girl; and Harry's trying to fix his hair," the Black boy answered.

"Well, that's a lost cause," Brynne said plainly. "Mummy doesn't even try to fix my hair anymore, I don't know why Harry bothers."

"Because, Brynne honey, not everyone can go around with hair that looks like you've been in a hurricane," Lily told her daughter.

"But I's likes it that way. Daddy calls it 'untamed,'" she said with a proud air in her voice, "just like me!"

"You certainly are untamed my little one, you certainly are. Come on, let's get you cleaned up," Lily said as she lifted the little girl from the chair and surveyed the damage to her outfit from breakfast. A commotion in the hallway alerted the family that their patriarch, the permanent houseguest and her brother had returned. Bastien held onto the door frame when Ginny was heard, as he was nearly knocked over by his baby sister and her best friend, running to greet her.

"Sounds like we've got company," Eva said quietly. "Let the madness begin," she added in an even more muted tone.

"Be nice," Anwen reprimanded her. Rapid, heavy footsteps on the stairs let the three women know that Harry had also figured out that Ginny was here. By the time Anwen was finally able to reach the hall, most of the children were surrounding the red head, who was trying to take her jacket off with Sirius' help.

"Hi sweetie, how was home?" Anwen asked the girl.

"Good, my twin brothers are...you're really going to let them create their own line of products for the shops? It's a long way from self-scrubbing Dutch ovens to their Fever Fudge," Ginny asked as she looked at James Potter.

"Hey, Zonko's is good stuff, but they haven't really changed their line since we were in school. Your brothers have some excellent ideas, nothing wrong with expanding into a new market," he answered.

"Well, I think you're crazy. My advice, either increase your liability insurance, or hire Anwen as your counsel. You're going to have some unhappy people on your hands if their testing of the products while I was there was any indication. I don't think that Percy can sit down yet, and he ate that Swelling Stick on Thursday night. Of course, you only swell on your bottom from them, so perhaps there isn't even a market for them," she explained. John Black's eyes got wide and he had the most crooked smile on his face at this pronouncement.

"Oh, there's a market for those. There is a definite market for those."

"John Sirius Black, if I find out that you've given anyone a swollen bottom, you'd best know that your bottom will be swollen up too, and not because you ate any sweets," Anwen reprimanded him.

"Yes, Mum," he dejectedly replied. Anwen suspected he'd try to get away with it anyway. She looked over at her surrogate daughter, and watched her trying to figure out where to look, since Bastien was to her right and Harry was now to her left.

"Come one, everyone, how about if we move into the conservatory and let Ginny put her things into her room. Do you need anything?" Anwen asked even as she was waving her arms, trying to move people toward the large sitting room at the end of the house.

"No, I just, can you come in for a few minutes?" the girl asked.

"Sure," she answered as she moved through the crowd that was now dispersing and toward the end of the hall that lead to Ginny's first floor room. She reached the young woman's side just as Remus did as well. He pulled a sack from behind his back and dropped it in her lap. The girl smiled at the brown package with the gold lettering and looked up at her former professor.

"What's this for?" Ginny stammered, but Remus just smiled at her.

"A little bird told me that you'd been missing your favorite confections. Since I have to walk by there everyday, the bird asked if I could stop in and bring this back for you. I figured you'd want to hide it before the little ones ate it all." Few people realized that the former werewolf preferred to walk to and from school each day. Claimed it kept him from getting the 'love handles' that now were part of James' middle.

"Thank you, and I'll have to thank that little bird." Remus tipped his head at the girl and continued in the other direction while Anwen and Ginny went into her room. Sirius had already put her little travel case near the bed and another smaller case on her desk. Ginny opened the top drawer of her bureau and deposited the chocolates, save the three bits she'd taken out to eat.

"Chocolate at eight in the morning?" Anwen quizzed her.

"You want some?" Ginny replied back and they both smiled with genuine affection. The younger woman's face then dropped and her whole body shifted to her carriage to one that demonstrated her discomfort. "Why am I regretting doing this?"

"It's going to be hard, and you knew that it would. If it's too much, you can hang out in here, or stay in the kitchen with me or head back to France even. No one is expecting anything from you. You don't have to do anything that you don't want to."

"Except Harry," she replied glumly. Anwen stayed quiet and the young woman didn't ask for advice, instead eating another bite of her sweets. "I need to deal with this, right? Things aren't going to get better all on their own, are they?"

"Probably not, sweetie, but that doesn't mean you have to figure it out all in one day, or even one weekend. You didn't fall in love overnight, and you didn't fall out of love that way either," Anwen told her as she awkwardly knelt down next to Ginny's hovering chair.

"You're just too smart, you know that?"

"Sirius tells me the same thing all the time," Anwen said with a sly smile. "So, do you know who the sweets are from?"

"I think so. That's not making things any easier either." Ginny then threw her hands up in the air and spun her chair around. "What if I just want someone to tell me what to do? Can't somebody else decide my future, tell me where to go to school in the fall and what classes to focus on? All of this is wrapped up together, and it's just so … unfair!"

"No one ever said that life is fair. In fact, in my experience, when you've had the lowest lows, it makes the highest highs even better."

"Yeah, yeah…can I have a few minutes alone? Just tell them…I don't care what you tell them, but I need to figure out how I'm going to make it through to lunch. I'll deal with the day in little chunks; it won't feel so overwhelming that way."

"That sounds like a plan, sweetie," Anwen answered before leaving the room. Ginny propelled herself to the desk in the room, and opened up the case that Sirius had put there. She took out the diary that she had kept for the last eight months, going back to just before the accident and also took out the one that she'd been keeping when she lived in London with Harry.

She read the one from the distant past first, reading about their adventures with the Potters, Sirius, Remus and Anwen. She closed her eyes and let herself remember the nights of passion with Harry in the flat. How she'd learned to both love him as a wife, and learned to be his lover.

She knew that at least part of her was passionately in love with Harry, and was nearly willing to just gloss over what had happened between their other selves in this timeline…almost. The problem wasn't the accident, or even Harry's rather childish behavior that immediately followed. They were both young, and she'd learned enough to know that sometimes you just forgave the person you loved because you loved them. The problem, this thing that she felt between them was vaguer and far less defined. In the end, the issue was that she couldn't figure out exactly what was holding her back.

There was a strong emotion in the pit of her gut that told her something still wasn't right. She had a suspicion about what might be causing it, but she didn't want to make a decision based on rumors and innuendo. In the end, Ginny was certain that she needed to know what mix of the Harrys was now in the house with her. Was he more the cocky smart-alecky boy that was the king of Hogwarts or was he the mature man who'd gone up against Voldemort and stood up to his mentor when necessary? Would the boy that was here now be strong enough to be her friend, lover and partner?

Ginny put away her diaries, and pulled a letter, somewhat yellowed with age. The creases in the parchment were well defined from the letter being opened and closed repeatedly. Ginny was honored that her friend had kept it all these years, and apparently had read it numerous times. As she unfolded the letter she'd written to Anwen just before she and Harry had come back, she didn't have to think too hard about what it said, but it was different this time; she wasn't reading it as the person who gave the advice contained therein, but instead as someone who needed to be advised.

My dear friend,

I wish that I were saying goodbye to you myself, but you need to rest and I didn't want to wake you. I know that you hurt, and that the road ahead isn't going to be easy, but you have never been about the easy way, my friend. You appreciate a challenge. If you didn't, you'd have never stuck by Sirius all these years.

I think that you're going to have a hard time with him as you get better, but don't forget that his smothering of you is only because he adores you. When he's on your last nerve and you're ready to scream, do yourself a favor and think of how empty your life would be if he were gone. I have to do that with Harry all the time, but it really does work.

Enjoy your life, my friend. Treasure those things that you taught me to see - how no two sunrises are the same, that chocolate is the cure-all for any hurt in your heart, and most importantly, that loving someone means you're worthy of being loved back. I know when we see each other next I won't be the same, but I hope that you remember this time we shared warmly. You are truly my dearest friend.

Ginny

The girl folded the note, and realized just how profound her own words were. Life certainly was different with Harry gone. She missed him, and not only the part that was married to him. She missed the boy who pulled pranks at school and who nearly fell off of his own broom trying to watch out for her when they played their first Quidditch match together her third year.

Ginny slid the note back into her diary, not sure if she'd return it to its rightful owner, or read it again. She thumbed through the diary, reading her own words about her deep love for her husband. The words only left her with more unanswered questions and an even more ambivalent feeling in her gut. It didn't matter, right now she was quite certain that she needed to talk with Harry and figure out how to get on with her life.

Manipulating her wand by the controls for her chair, she quietly glided into the bathroom that was attached to her bedroom and checked her face and hair. The loo at her parents house hadn't been adapted for someone to be sitting while they got ready for the day, and she'd done up her hair without the benefit of being able to see it while she worked. Ginny rolled her eyes when she saw how it had come out, and set herself to making her mop presentable.

When she left her room, the first people that she ran into were Chrissie and Brynne, who were sitting on the floor in the main hall, not far from where her door was. They were playing with their dolls, but they quickly dropped them when they say the teen coming toward them.

"Ginny, Ginny, what took you so long?" Brynne questioned, emphasizing the last word by making it both sound long and rolling her head to it. She really was quite an animated character of a child.

"I had some things that I needed to read, Miss Potter, not that it's any of your business. What are you two doing?" Ginny directed her chair to settle down where the girls were playing.

"We's been playing wedding. Brynne said that you're going to marry her brother, but I think that you're going to marry mine!" Chrissie explained, but Ginny's face fell. She thought what was going on or not going on between her and Bastien was better hidden.

"Well, I'm, eh," the girl stammered, "I'm not marrying anyone any time soon. Why don't you two go back to playing? I need to talk with your Mummy."

"She's in the kitchen. Lilyan and Emma just picked those stinky leeks that Daddy likes," the littlest Black replied, and Ginny chortled at Sirius and his obsession with his wife's leek soup.

"I take it she's making soup for lunch?"

"Yup," Brynne responded, somehow making the word sound like it had at least two syllables.

"Okay, well, save me a seat between you two for lunch, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the girls cheered as they picked up their toys and followed the floating chair toward the kitchen. The minute that she entered the room she could feel the mood change, and Ginny just wanted to run and hide, unsure if she was really ready to face both the past, but also the future.

She could feel Harry's eyes on her as she came into the spacious room, and purposefully kept her eyes from his, instead seeking out the company of Eva Lupin who was decorating some sugar biscuits with thick white icing and then dipping them in bowls of colored sugar. Harry was on the other side of the room, ripping leaves of lettuce and chard at the prep sink. There were a few other children as well as Lily working alongside Anwen. Harry must have come back from Diagon Alley, as he was no longer wearing his glasses. He looked more like the man she'd been married to, and it made her pause.

Conversation had stopped as she'd entered, and Ginny was thankful when Eva started quizzing Jamie about her classes at the magical day school. Ginny sniggered in her head when the usually quiet and reserved Black daughter got very excited about her naturalist class. Jamie had always been interested in plants, animals and nature; that she got to study it for a mark thrilled her. Thankfully the young girl's dissertation about the amazing properties of the Willow tree kept the conversation occupied until it was time for lunch.

Ginny carried a basket full of loaves of bread on her lap to the dining room, and then gently slid it onto the center of the table. Anwen and Sirius had brought the blowfish table over from Grimmauld Place, a wonderful reminder of his mother that rippled with the colors of the Aurora Borealis under the dishes. It was a good thing the table, and now the room that contained it, could adapt, regardless of the party size. There were twenty-five to sit down to lunch. As promised, the two littlest girls had saved a spot for Ginny between them, and she navigated her chair into the void, strategically seated before any of the boys had come in. Both Harry and Bastien looked disappointed that she wouldn't be sitting with them, but they thankfully chose to say nothing.

Later that afternoon, long after lunch was completed, but well before supper was to begin, Ginny finally decided that she had to deal with the pink hippogriff that was in the room, making everyone uncomfortable. She made her way into the conservatory where the older boys were playing Exploding Snap.

"Um, Harry, do you think that you could," Ginny spoke so softly and timidly that she wasn't even sure if the words were leaving her mouth. Had they all not looked up at her, she would have thought that the utterance was in her head. "Could you come and walk with me?"

Harry popped up off the floor and headed towards her as he spoke. "Yeah, sure, anything you want." He was presently as her side, but in the way as she spun her chair around to leave the room. As she turned, she couldn't help but notice the hurt and pained look on Bastien's face. She put it aside for the time being, knowing that at some point she'd have to face him as well.

They walked down the length of the first floor, and then out into the greenhouse. Ginny always loved to come out here, for the room was heavily perfumed with the flowers and herbs Anwen grew not only for cooking, but also for potion making.

"So," Harry started.

"So," Ginny replied. "Thanks for your note this week. It was good to hear from you. It helped to put things back into perspective. My brain's been a little jumbled. There were several times that I had stop and remember what year I was in. It's been strange to have both sets of memories."

"Tell me about it. I was in potions this week, and it was one of the potions that Mum and Remus had brewed after you all were poisoned, and I realized that Professor Slughorn was brewing it differently, but I couldn't say anything because I wasn't supposed to know about the potion or how to brew it. I feel like I have to watch everything that comes out of my mouth."

"I guess in that sense, I've had it easier. At least I was with Anwen and Sirius and they knew what was going on. With the exception of Lilyan and Jamie hearing me make a mistake, I was safe." Ginny said quietly as she hovered over the crushed shell and dirt path that wandered through the rows of plants. Harry felt like he was moving in slow motion walking with her levitating chair.

"I just hung out with Ron. If I made a mistake, he didn't really notice and if he did, I just asked him a question about the stats of the Cannons this year and he starts talking and covers for me." Ginny chuckled at Harry's using her brother's obsession to mask his confusion this week.

"The one thing that doesn't change about you, Harry, you are resourceful." Another uncomfortable silence hung between them and Ginny was considering ending this, going to find Anwen and then immediately Floo back to France. She stopped to smell the tiny blooms of lavender that Anwen grew for cooking. They didn't live in Provence, but she certainly liked to cook with herbs de Provence.

Each of them opened their mouths to say something, but then stopped. Several times this happened, until finally Ginny decided to head back toward the door to the hall and kitchen beyond. This, whatever it was between Harry and her, it wasn't going to work. She could see that now.

"Look, maybe too much has changed…" she started as she sped past him. Fortunately for Harry, speeding in her chair was still quite slow and he quickly closed the distance before she could even complete her thought.

"Gin, honey, stop," he said before he got in her way, forcing her to do so. He knelt down in front of her and took her hands in his. "Did you ever suspect that it would be this difficult when got back? Things were so comfortable, so easy in London…"

"Harry, if it was only how we were in London that we were dealing with, all of this would be so much easier."

"Yeah, it's not," he despondently replied, dropping her hands. He pulled his wand and summoned the small stool that was against the panes of glass on the far side of the greenhouse. "Look, I think that we at least owe each other a talk about this stuff."

"You're right. Do you want to go first, or shall I?" She answered, fear still evident in her voice.

Harry smiled at her willingness to at least discuss this. Hope welled up inside of him, and he mentally reminded himself to be more the man that was married to her than the boy whose body he was in. He wasn't sure that he liked the boy much, but so often when he opened his mouth, it was his immature self rather than the man that had been married to her.

"Ladies first."

Ginny sighed and nodded her head. "Let me start with the things I know. First, if I was only dealing with my feelings that I had for you when we were in London and fighting Voldemort, then there would be no question in my mind. I would want to be with you, I'd want to get married as soon as we could. Unfortunately, that's not reality, is it?"

"No, it's not. I am so…"

"Don't, Harry. I don't want a reflex apology. I want a heartfelt one, one that you know what you're really apologizing for." Harry nodded at her demand and allowed her to continue speaking.

"The problem is…Harry, who you've been these last few months…I just don't know what to think. I mean, you just ignored me and then there were these stories about you and girls and …"

Harry stood at hearing that. He wanted to know who had ratted him out.

"Who told you?" he yelled. "Was it Draco? Bastien? Was it Ron?"

"No, goodness, my brother would never say a bad word about you. It wasn't Bas or Draco either, they'd never say anything to hurt me."

"Who then? Who told you?"

"You're not even going to attempt to deny it?" Ginny asked, and Harry's mouth hung open at her.

"Um, I…it's not as bad as you think."

"Well, I've got to be honest with you here; one girl is probably too many for me. I can't believe after all the time that it took us to get there, that you just hopped into the sack with someone else. How many, Harry?"

"Gin, if one is too many, then what difference does it make?" Harry couldn't even make eye contact with her as she spoke, and hot tears pricked at her eyes and she needed to take a deep breath just to stay calm.

"That many? How could…" she stopped, not sure if she wanted more information or if perhaps all of this was left unsaid. What Evan had written her was true. She'd suspected it was the case; there wasn't any other reason for the boy to rat out his big brother. "Never mind. Just one question though," she turned her flushed, tear-streaked face to him and looked head on to query: "Didn't you think that we'd get back together?"

With the question, Harry threw his arms up in the air and yelled aloud. "You'd told me that you never wanted to see me again!"

"Yes," Ginny yelled back, "less than a week after I was told that I would never walk again. I was hurt! I was angry! I was confused as to why I was punished for your recklessness! That didn't mean that I wasn't ever going to forgive you, I just needed time," anger welling inside of Ginny. "Did you run off and shag the first skirt that walked by on your way out of St. Mungo's or did you at least wait a week or two?"

"That isn't fair! We were broken up!" All Ginny could think was that was a stupid answer and she was feeling more upset, more hurt by every word that passed his lips.

"Life's not fair, Harry, but sometimes you take the harder path because it's the right thing to do."

"That's funny, coming from you while you're sitting there on your high horse," he yelled back. "Yeah, I took advantage of the fact that I was single. It's not your business."

"See, that's where you're wrong," she angrily retorted. "You invited all those girls into your bed, so if we ever share one again, they're in there with us. Think about it, Harry. While we were in London I told you that I was always so happy that the intimacy that we shared was just between us. It was ours. Now, it could be yours and mine and every slag that you laid with."

Harry didn't understand why she was so angry. They had broken up, she had no claim on him while they weren't dating. He did what any bloke would do in the situation. Before he could react and stop it, immature teen Harry began talking.

"Well, that's your problem, isn't it? Just because you didn't get any…"

"Harry, how dare you? I'm paralyzed from the waist down," she cried out, now sobbing uncontrollably, "it's not like anyone would even want to, or that I'd feel it…" she stopped as her cries violently ripped her apart.

"Gin, I am so sorry," he immediately apologized, realizing that he'd gone too far even though he suspected that it was too late. He couldn't believe that he'd said something so hurtful to her. Harry was embarrassed and ashamed.

"You know," Ginny spat at him when she could speak again, "you're not the only boy in the world, Harry James Potter. Just because I didn't do anything doesn't mean that there weren't those who were interested. How would you feel if I was acting like you have been?"

Harry sat down on the dirty floor and started to cry. He had no idea what had come over him or why he'd acted the way he had or said those wretched things to Ginny.

She just stared at him, fighting her compulsion to comfort him. She wanted him to hurt, to suffer, just like she had been. After a few minutes, she maneuvered her chair around so that she could leave. Enough had been said.

She left Harry on the floor weeping, intending to send his father in after him. As she left the heavily windowed room and passed through the kitchen, she saw the lone person waiting there. Bastien was sitting at the long butcher block island that prep work was done on, his bottom barely on the stool as he watched the door. The minute Ginny came out he was on his feet walking over toward her.

"I heard the yelling," he said as he got closer to her.

"He's not who I remember," she whispered as he got closer. Ginny looked up at Bastien, at his soft grey eyes and long wavy hair and gentle features. He was a dead ringer for his father, but his heart and soul were entirely his adoptive mother's.

"I'm so sorry he hurt you," the boy whispered before he knelt down next to her, brushing the hair from her face and wiping the tears from her eyes. "Come on, let's get you back to your room. If the girls see you this way…they might beat up Harry."

"Yeah, nothing quite as scary at a five year old girl," Ginny joked back.

"When that girl is Brynne Potter, you'd better believe it. His kneecaps might never the same."

The pair went the short distance to her room and he gently lifted her from her chair and laid her down on the bed.

"Someone, probably James, should go in there are take care of him."

"I've got that," he said as he lifted his wand and let a bluish mist fly away from the tip.

"Since when can you do a communication Patronus?" Ginny asked, surprised at the magical prowess that he'd demonstrated.

"Dad thought it was important for us to always be able to communicate with him. He's actually a really good teacher." Ginny nodded and then patted the bed next to her, indicating that he should sit down next to her. Bastien closed the door and did so.

Ginny felt the bed shift as he sat down next to her, the weight of his presence heavy upon her. She wasn't sure what to say, wasn't sure if there was anything to say. Her emotions felt like the letter cubes of the spelling game that she played with Lilyan and Jamie. It was if everything had been shaken and then spilled on the ground, and she wasn't sure what to do with these jumbled emotions. She didn't even know if they'd amount to anything.

Ginny could say that she was certain of one thing as she watched Bastien lift his feet up onto the bed and toe off his shoes and let them drop to the floor. She was absolutely sure that she liked that he was here, especially as she laid her head on his shoulder.

The rest of Saturday passed quietly. James took Harry home and fire called to say that they wouldn't be back. Sirius went over to talk with his godson Sunday morning, finding himself needing to defend his surrogate daughter from the pain that Harry had caused her. James was glad to have someone else speak to Harry, since their conversation had ended in a screaming match.

"I happen to know that your father taught you that you don't yell at a lady," Sirius spoke firmly, yet calmly to the boy.

"She was accusing me of being some kind of playboy," Harry retorted.

"Well, it takes one to know one, and boy, that's exactly what you are."

"How the hell does everyone know about my love life? Which one of my friends has been ratting me out?" Harry was beyond irritated now, someone was spilling his secrets and he needed to know which of his lifelong friends it was.

"None of your friends, but I'd watch what you do around your brother and cousin in the future. They write their Mum's every week still," Sirius explained, and Harry sat down and raked his hands through his hair.

"My brother told on me?"

"Harry, he idolized you, they both did. Wasn't one of my favorite conversations to have with my twelve year old son about why his older cousin needed him to sneak a girl back into Ravenclaw tower, his ending up with detention when the Headmistress found him out after curfew, heading to Gryffindor Tower to get her."

"But it's no one's business. Ginny had no right to expect me to…"

"That's where you're wrong my boy," Sirius hissed through clenched teeth. "You claim to have loved her, but then stopped acting like it. Love doesn't just end."

"She told me that she never wanted to see me again!"

"And I distinctly remember telling you that just because she said that didn't mean things were over. I told you to be patient, you weren't. She was behaving exactly like Anwen did after the battle and all the news that came out. I told you that she was still in love with you, she just needed to adjust to her new reality and if you were patient, she'd come back to you and everything would be okay. You chose not to listen, and you might very well have lost her for good." Harry scoffed at Sirius' words, which only made his godfather cringe. He didn't have enough patience to deal with Harry's impatience and arrogance. Ginny remained upset, which in turn had upset Anwen and the girls. He was compelled to be back at home to help them.

"Now, I'm done talking with you, since it's obvious that you can't take responsibility yet. Know this though, you hurt her again this way, you're going to not only have to deal with me, but I will make sure that her father and brothers know what you've done."

"Sirius, I just…everything is so messed up in my head. I can't figure out what's going to happen or what I'm going to say until it's coming out of my mouth."

"Well, then, I would suggest that you figure it out, and then figure out what you want from Ginny because she isn't going to put up with another day like yesterday. You'll be lucky that she'll speak to you at all after what you said to her. There are others who would be more than willing to be the man that she needs. Trust me, Harry, if you lose her, you're never going to forgive yourself. She really is one in a million."

Sirius came home, still agitated from his conversation with Harry. He tried to convey the nature of his talk without resorting to curse words, which was quite difficult. Anwen finally sent him out to get on his bike and take a ride around the grounds to work out his frustration and swear at the trees as loudly as he needed to.

The lives of the families returned to normal, as surprisingly did something between Harry and Ginny. She was impressed when she received a long note from him in late January. He apologized for everything - for the accident, for the way he'd acted after, for his ungentlemanly behavior over the fall, and most importantly for his behavior while they were talking in the greenhouse. He sounded more like the man that she'd been married to, and because of this letter, she agreed to continue to correspond with Harry, but assuring that Harry understood that she wasn't agreeing to anything else. For the sake of her brother and their mutual friends, she wanted to affirm they could at least be civil toward one another. She couldn't say whether there would be anything else to their relationship in the future, but she decided that waiting to see if Harry would man up wasn't what was best for her.

Ginny actively wrote and communicated with Bastien, too. Their letters continued to be friendly, but their conversations moved from school and family to discussion of their futures and what they wanted out of life. He asked Ginny questions in his letters, sought out her opinion and very much took her counsel on the choices that he would have to make. She could feel her heart flutter when his letters arrived, and she was genuinely touched by the small gestures that he made. Her favorite was the weekly arrival of a Honeydukes bar via Butterbeer, the owl. If she was judicious with her nibbling, she found that she could make one bar last the whole week.

Early in February, Bastien seemed particularly distracted while he was talking with Ginny about her Astronomy homework on the mirrors. He wasn't really helping her anymore, but he continued to ramble on nervously.

"…make sure that you check the date that they're looking for, because if you put the moons of Jupiter in the wrong order, it can completely screw up the angle of the polar winds and then you could end up with the red spot in the wrong place," he told her very quickly. She nodded her head, seriously hoping that the questions weren't going to be that complex. She was hoping that she'd just remember all the names of the moons of Jupiter.

"Bas, is there something else that you need to get to? You seem a little distracted," she told him. The boy stopped and stared at the mirror, worry lines framing his gentle eyes and suddenly making Ginny quite nervous about what he was going to say.

"No, I don't need to be anywhere else, it's just…there's something that I need to ask you," he quickly said, wringing his hands together and then shoving his fingers through his hair. With that maneuver he looked exactly like his father had in his late teens, and it made Ginny smile.

"Okay, ask away," she prompted.

"Well, um, you know that, um we get to go into Hogsmeade a week from Saturday, and well, Elisabeth is coming in to see Draco and I was just, er, wondering if you'd like to come along so that you and I could spend part of the day together?"

"Like a date?" Ginny said, quite titillated at the idea of going out with Bastien, even if it would be a double date with Draco and Elisabeth. The four of them spent lots of time together over the summer, and it was always enjoyable.

"Well, er, that was the idea," he answered quietly, thinking that she didn't like the plan.

"Yeah, I'd really, ah, like that," she answered, garnering a wide smile across the enchanted mirrors. "What do you have planned?"

"Well, we figured that you girls could Floo to the Lupin's - we already asked and they're fine with it - and then we could get some lunch and do some shopping."

"That sounds like fun. Okay then, I guess I'll see you a week from Saturday," she nervously replied even as she grinned madly at him. "I really need to get back to this revision, I have another exam and…"

"No, you're right, go back to your revision. Write me and let me know how it went, okay?"

"Sure, say hi to Draco and Ethan for me, okay. Oh, and my brother if you happen to see him. I talk to you more than him. Do you think that's strange?"

"Given that we're talking about Ron here, no. He's all wrapped up in his newest girlfriend. Not quite sure what they see in each other, she's the brainy head-girl and he's, well, I don't need to explain him to you. He's your brother." Ginny giggled at that.

"Yes, he is. Hmm, do I know this girl?"

"You might. Her name's Hermione Granger, she's in my house, but they got together when she knocked him on his arse in Defense. Uncle Remus had a hard time not howling with laughter at it. They've definitely got the yin and yang thing going on."

"Interesting," Ginny said, stroking her chin in an obviously cartoon-ish fashion. "You need to keep me up to date on this one."

"I promise I will. Go on, take care of your revision and I'll call again in a few days."

"Okay, have a good night."

"You too, red," he said, using his father's nickname for the girl. Ginny definitely liked that he had a pet name for her, even if it was one that he'd borrowed from his father. She moved herself over to her desk and pulled out the small calendar that she kept there. It was only when she looked at the date did she suddenly have second thoughts about making plans with Bastien. Hogsmeade day was on February 14 - Valentine's Day.

By the time Valentine's Day arrived, Ginny and Bastien had spoken several times, and while she didn't want to admit it aloud, she was quite excited to spend the day with him. Elisabeth was full of romantic thoughts, which she didn't keep to herself at all, and the younger girl had decided that she'd caught the "romance bug" from her. It didn't help that Anwen and Sirius were as romantic with each other as they had ever been, she giving him an expertly charmed dragon-hide riding jacket and he giving her a watercolor painting of Fair Garden that he'd commissioned last spring, when her gardens and the trees were in full bloom. Ginny knew many married couples, but when she settled down, this was the kind of marriage that she wanted. The kind that she'd had with Harry when they were in London.

She tried not to think about the inevitability that she would run into Harry today, and that he'd most likely be with a girl. Things hadn't returned to a romantic place between the two of them, she categorized it more as an awkward friendship. She did send him a generic Valentine card, one from the set that Chrissie was using for her Nursery School class, and a few heart shaped Muggle candies. It certainly wasn't meant to be taken in a romantic way. When they did run into each other, she was going to strive to be cordial and brief, although she secretly hoped that Bas had already clued him in, thus taking the pressure off of her.

Elisabeth burst into the house at half past ten exactly; the boys were to pick them up at the Lupin's at 10:45. Her promptness caused sniggers from Sirius, but Anwen gave him her 'Mum's look' to let him know that his teasing the girls wouldn't help anything.

"Okay, well, shall we be going," Elisabeth asked, bouncing up and down on her feet.

"Sure," Ginny answered, "just let me get my cloak."

"I'll get it for you," Elisabeth offered, "is it in the closet?"

"Yes," Ginny answered, even though the other girl had already left the sitting room and was down the hall. Her tittering at the excitement of the Black's Au Pair was interrupted by Harry's owl, Hedwig, flying into the room with a large box in his claws. "What in the world?" she muttered just before the box was dumped in her lap.

Ginny looked between Sirius and Anwen, and then at Elisabeth as she re-entered the room. None of them gave her any inclination that they knew what it was, so she tentatively opened the box. Inside was a dozen long-stem red roses, a heart shaped box of chocolates and a small blue box with a pink ribbon. The only note was the small card nestled among the blooms that said, "Love always, Harry". Ginny took the little box in her hands, bewilderingly holding it, not sure that she wanted to know what was inside.

"Did you have any idea that he was going to do this?" Ginny asked Sirius.

"None, but the last time we talked, things weren't left on the best of notes. He was a bloody prat."

Ginny nodded at her guardian and then pulled on the tie of the pink bow. When it released, she lifted the lid to find a pair of pink crystal heart-shaped earrings. She held the box in her hand, feeling her head begin to swoon.

"You don't think that these are diamonds, do you?" she timidly asked, barely touching the box, as if the contents could burn through her skin. No one answered, but she knew what they were all thinking; they probably were. "I don't understand, we've barely spoken since the fight in the greenhouse. Our letters are pleasant, but they're not romantic. Why would he think to send me these?" She put the little blue box back inside the larger one, and then set the entire package on the ground.

"I can't think about this right now. I've got to go. Oh Lord, I have a date in a few minutes. What if I run into him and he asks about the gift?" She went from speaking in a rambling, dream-like stupor to a more animated and agitated sense.

Elisabeth walked over to her friend and wrapped her cloak around her shoulders. "You'll tell him that you received it, and that you shall speak with him another time. You didn't ask for him to send it, so don't you dare feel badly that he did. Now, we have some very polite gentlemen waiting for us in Hogsmeade, and I for one cannot wait to get there."

Ginny appreciated her cohort's candor and nodded as she pulled the cloak around her and then set her chair to moving toward the door.

"I'll put these things up and out of the way in your room, until you figure out what you're going to do with them," Anwen told her.

"Thanks, I guess we'll see you later," she responded as the girls left the room. Sirius walked over to where his wife was sitting and leaned down to kiss her.

"It's going to be an interesting day in Hogsmeade. Perhaps a certain mutt should go and wander the streets. I can help out if they need me?" Anwen just shook her head at her husband and sighed.

The pair of couples had a wonderful day together. The boys were already at the Lupin's cottage when they arrived, and any ambivalence that Ginny might have felt was instantly gone when she saw the excited grin of the second oldest Black son. To her pleasant surprise, Bastien had a small bouquet of lavender and small pink tea roses for her. She also appreciated that he pulled the small pouf over next to her chair and sat down, thus making them at eye level.

"How did you know?" she asked, surprised that he'd somehow known what her favorite flowers were.

"You always stop to smell them. It doesn't matter if we're in the greenhouse, or out in the garden. I figured that they must be important to you."

"They are. Lavender reminds me of my Mum, my Dad always gives her bouquets of lavender. There were tea roses in my grandmother's garden and Charlie would weave me crowns out of them when I was small," she explained as she dipped her head to smell them again.

Eva had offered to put the bouquet into some water while they were gone, and soon the two couples were facing the chill of February air. They shopped a little, and Ginny ran into several of her friends, all of whom were thrilled at seeing the missing Gryffindor, and asking when she was coming back to school. If anyone was surprised that she was out with Bastien, and not Harry, they kept it to themselves.

Lunch was at a back table at the Three Broomsticks, quiet and somewhat private. Conversation was pleasant and the food was delicious. Bastien slyly got the check and paid for all four meals, only his brother looking upset by his actions. There were a few shops that they had yet to visit, and were headed to the door when Harry and Ginny ended up face to face.

Harry surveyed the situation with an unflinching eye. He knew that Draco and Elisabeth were a couple, serious enough to be talking about marriage. That meant that Ginny was out with one of his best friends, and there was nothing casual about it, given the way that Bastien's hand was on Ginny's back as her chair moved about the crowded room.

"Hi," he said blankly, "surprised to see you here."

"We just came over for the day," Ginny answered without offering any further explanation. She looked over at the blonde that was seated next to Harry, and while she felt a pang of hurt, it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be.

"Can I talk with you for a minute?" he asked, and before she could answer, Bastien spoke.

"I don't think that's such a good idea."

"I didn't ask you," Harry coldly replied.

"Bas, I need to speak with him. Can you wait over by the door? This won't take but a moment." While neither of the boys looked happy about it, they and Elisabeth walked away, leaving Ginny, Harry and his date at the table in the middle of the room. The whispers from around the room were getting louder. "Do you want to do this here?" Ginny asked, surprised that he'd be so insensitive to the girl that was sitting there.

"Oh, um," he stammered, looking over at his date. "I guess not." He rose and pointed over toward the fireplace where there wasn't anyone sitting. Harry turned and spoke, looking down at Ginny with anger in his eyes. "Are you on a date?"

"Not that it's your business, but yes, I am."

"How could you? I thought that, with your letters and everything. I thought you were giving me a chance? Why are you here with Bas?"

"Because he asked me, Harry. There's a lot I need to talk with you about, but not here and not now. Just, write me, okay?"

"Uh, yeah," he replied even as she set her chair into motion and went the short distance to the door. He helplessly watched as Bastien put her cloak around her shoulders and held the door open so that she could go through.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: I was blown away by the sweet messages of support I received from the last chapter. I have been so blessed through my battle with cancer that there are so many that are wishing me well. Thank you, all of you. We are going to get a glimpse into what is really happening to young Mr. Potter in this chapter, and some questions will be answered. Many thanks to my beta, Arnel, for all that she does to upgrade my writing as well as what her amazing spirt does in my life. One note to remember, while Harry and Ginny carry all the memories from both lives with them, they are the only ones who do. Also, they are supposed to be losing the memories from their "first lives" or what we know as canon and the timeline from "Continuum". Their "second lives" or the childhoods from this timeline are what is to become more dominant. Again, many thanks to those of you reading and for your reviews. MNF**

**Chapter 5:**

"**Casser"**

To say that things were strained between Harry and Bastien after Valentine's Day would be underestimating the tension wildly. They had nearly all their classes together, but thankfully, so did Draco, Ron and Neville. One of the other three boys always put themselves between the fractured pair, just to keep the peace, but it had made life hard on all five of them. None more so than Ron, who couldn't pick between two of his best mates and what would be best for his little sister. He wasn't convinced that it was either of them.

On her part, Ginny continued her almost daily correspondence with Bastien, revelling in his concern and care for her. Their relationship remained as a strong friendship, but she couldn't deny that she looked forward to his letters, and eagerly wrote back. She'd also written to Harry, and he'd written back, but his letters were terse and formal. Both boys knew that she wrote to the other, and she'd made no commitment to either of them beyond friendship. The contrast between the letters she received from both boys bothered her immensely. Harry always seemed distant, as if he was hiding something. She couldn't help but wonder if the girl he was with on Valentine's Day was something special to him. Ginny finally wrote to him about a month after the incident at the Three Broomsticks and begged him to be honest with her and tell her what was wrong.

Harry wanted to write to Ginny and confess everything; how confused he was, how he would look at something and not be sure if it was real or not. He'd had a long meeting with Dumbledore about it, hours actually, in his attempt to straighten out his memories. Unlike Ginny, he was having a much harder time functioning in his new life. While he was told that his memories of his old life were to have faded, in reality it seemed that his new life memories were the ones that he was struggling to hold onto. He often succumbed to violent headaches that caused his vision to blur and moments when he seemed to just "bugger out". When he'd regain control of himself, he'd often found that either he'd done something stupid or a situation grew out of control and he was in hot water. He didn't want the life he was leading, but it was seemingly being manipulated by an entity that he couldn't see.

He would look at people, and know their names, but he couldn't suss out if what he knew was from this past or the old past. He'd ask about people he was sure that everyone knew, and instead he'd be greeted with confused looks and whispers behind his back. He'd heard it whispered on more than one occasion, that Harry Potter was a tad barmy, and sadly Harry had to agree. He was ready to ask to be removed from school, to stay at home with his parents and finish his studies that way. He wanted to confess all of this to Ginny, to hope that she could give him some comfort, but he never did. He just was terribly afraid that if he confided this to her, she would pull father away from him.

The only thing that was keeping him at Hogwarts was his duties as Quidditch captain. As February thawed and March set in, Harry was back out on his broom every day, sometimes just to get away from everyone and have a chance to clear his head. It seemed that flying was the only constant in both of his lives. The recent match against Hufflepuff was remarkably easy, and his house was up 2-0. There was only one match left for Gryffindor this year, their late May contest against Ravenclaw. It would probably be the last Quidditch that Harry would play, at least in any sort of formal way. It was one more thing that was adding regret to his life right now. He'd also stopped his activities with girls, choosing instead to spend his nights in large study groups in the library, sitting with his brother doing homework in the common room or sneaking off to the Room of Requirement to work alone. Because his friends couldn't find him, they assumed that he was off in a broom cupboard somewhere. He let them assume what they wanted, he didn't really care anymore.

On the evening of March 1, Harry was sitting with his brother, cousin and housemates at the Gryffindor dinner table, chatting before they would inevitably head back upstairs to the dorms to revise, revise and revise some more. The NEWT exams were heavily on everyone's minds, everyone except Harry's that was. He'd found that now that he had two lifetimes of schooling, and some very advanced lessons along the way, he was doing better in his classes than he had before. The Harry of this lifetime had always done well in school, but he'd never really applied himself. He studied enough to get above average grades, but never strove to be excellent. He now found himself getting outstanding grades without much work. It was driving Ron's girlfriend crazy.

That was another thing that bothered him. He had memories a life where he had been incredibly close to Hermione; she was like his sister and was hands down, his best confidant. Here, he only knew her through Ron. Harry missed her advice and the way she could find answers to his problems. He even missed the nagging and playful banter the two had done. Mostly though, Harry missed the deep friendship he'd had with the girl. It was another thing that had been sacrificed to his playing with time. The weight of those sacrifices was becoming nearly unbearable.

As the boys finished their evening tea - making sure that they were caffeinated up for the evening's revising - a whole parliament of owls flew into the room and began dropping notes in the laps of several of the seventh year students. Harry and Ron each got them at the Gryffindor table, along with Erica Doober, the blonde Chaser who had replaced Ginny this year. Letters were also dropped down for Draco and Bastien. Everyone hastily opened them.

"Yes!" Ron cried out with a fist pump. "Got invited to the first round of pro Quidditch auditions."

"That's awesome," Neville said with a pat to his friend and roommate's shoulder.

"Harry, does yours say the same thing?" Evan asked his older brother with a hopeful look on his face.

"Yeah, this is pretty cool. Next weekend huh? We have to travel to Falmouth for the teams meet and greet," Harry rambled as he read. "Says there will be international teams there as well. Huh, might be fun to play in America or something."

"You'd leave Britain?" his brother asked, sounding quite dejected at this. "But, I'd still be on the team here, and Ethan's hoping to. You wouldn't come to see us?"

"Evan, I haven't made any decisions, I don't even know if any of the teams will want me. I was just thinking out loud, okay? You and our sisters are the most important people to me right now, well and Mum and Dad," he added and then kept going in his head, adding Ginny, regardless of how far apart they might seem right now.

"Yeah, yeah, okay," Evan responded, still worried about his brother. "You gonna write home to Mum and Dad and tell them?"

"I'll mirror them tonight, so don't spoil my surprise, okay kid? Looks like Draco and Bas got letters too. Guess I don't need to write Sirius then, huh?"

"When did you stop calling him Uncle Sirius? He's always been Uncle Sirius and all the sudden you dropped the uncle." Evan asked and Harry momentarily panicked.

"Er,, since I'm an adult. You can do it when you're of age too," he quickly said, hoping that the answer would be enough for his brother, which thankfully it was.

The boys left the Great Hall and headed to Gryffindor tower, where the Quidditch letters were all that anyone could talk about. The younger students were urging the three who had received invitations to consider their favourite teams. After about an hour, Harry figured he wasn't going to get any work done downstairs, and headed up to his dorm to tell his parents of his news and then settle down with his Runes text. If he didn't get at least an "E" on his exam, Anwen might never speak to him again. She'd been tutoring him for five years on the subject, and in theory he should know it better than any of his classmates. This wasn't the case, since he'd never bothered to really apply himself. He wanted to change that.

Harry took out the letter, and read it again. He'd love to have a career as a professional Quidditch Seeker. It would mean travel and camaraderie, and if he got on a team with Ron, well it wouldn't be too bad to share those things with one of his best friends. Harry also liked the idea of the money a pro career would bring, not that he was ever going to have to worry about gold. His father had explained his trust to him on his seventeenth birthday, but this would be his gold, gold _he_ earned, and no one could tell him how to spend it. As he mirrored home to tell his parents about everything, he found himself really warming up to the idea. He took out a small parchment card and wrote to Ginny to tell her, even though he was quite certain that she would already know, since both Draco and Bas were likely to tell their parents.

After the correspondences were completed and sent, and Harry had spent a good three hours working with the French Runic translation guide that Anwen preferred - yes, her French lessons when he was a child did indeed help him after all - he begrudgingly admitted, he felt much more confident in his abilities. That night, Harry went to bed feeling the best about this life that he had felt since he came back. He dreamed that night about playing Quidditch on his favourite team _Pride of Portree_ and coming off the pitch to find Ginny waiting for him. It was the first good night's sleep that he'd got in so long he couldn't remember the last one.

Three nights later, dinner over and the younger children upstairs with their Au Pair, a man and a girl were both outside the closed office door, technically eavesdropping, but it's hard to call it that when the voices from inside the office were so loud that they carried out of the room and into the marble laden hallway. The warring voices bounced around off the high buttresses and highly polished wood panels of the walls, echoing the most off the hard floor. A curse word left the mouth of the female voice and the pair in the hall looked at each other, surprised.

"Did she just swear?" Ginny asked Sirius. "I've never heard her swear."

"She does, but not often," Sirius replied. "Certainly not around civilized company or the children. When we're alone..."

"Don't, please, just...don't. I remember you two from when you were younger." Ginny teased the man and he chortled at her. Before he could answer more yelling came from his wife's private office.

"When I took this job with you, I told you that there were to be no more secrets," she yelled. "The way you manipulated me as a child, it was nearly unforgivable and I still haven't figured out why you did it, but I moved past it. However, the understanding was that you couldn't lie to me about anything and you couldn't hide any truths from me, no matter how trivial you found them. How dare you keep this from me! Keep this from him! Have you mentioned it to his parents, or don't you think that they need to know either?"

Something was mumbled by the man, in a voice so low that Sirius couldn't quite make it out. He wished Moony was here with his supersensitive hearing. Sirius was certain that he'd figure out what was said. He was on the verge of walking in there and telling him to leave. His hand was inches away from the handle when Ginny spoke to him.

"Do you know who they're talking about?"

"I think..." he paused, not sure how to word this. "I think this discussion might be about Harry."

"Harry, why are they yelling about Harry?" Ginny asked, surprised, since she had no idea there was anything wrong with him, let alone enough to make Anwen scream at Dumbledore.

"So, Albus," Anwen yelled, "he's having these moments and you haven't told him or James and Lily that they have to be dealt with? That is...unforgivable! What sort of perverse person are you?" Anwen screamed, her voice breaking with anguish. With that, Sirius had hit his breaking point and stormed the room, Ginny quickly behind him.

"Enough," Sirius roared. "You've upset her, you've upset Ginny and Merlin help you when James and Lily find out."

"Sirius," Anwen cautioned.

"No, Anwen, I can't sit aside and watch as he plays with the life of another person that I love. What you did to Anwen, it took her years to get over. It wasn't much fun to help her work through it either, but you wouldn't know that, since you weren't there," he walked over to his wife, and took her into his arms. "That's it, no more. Leave this instant. I am going to make sure that Harry and James and Lily know."

"The problem could rectify itself," Dumbledore explained.

"What problem? Is there something wrong with Harry?" Ginny demanded rather loudly, making all three of the adults turn and look at her. "If there's something wrong with him, I want to know."

Dumbledore stood there, looking at the girl over the top of his half-moon glasses, his face betraying nothing. Anwen made a frustrated noise at the man and then went to awkwardly kneel in front of Ginny's chair.

"Ginny, Harry's having a much harder time integrating his memories than you are. He's very attached to the old set, and it's causing him to have some sleeplessness and lapses of memory. It's becoming quite noticeable, and Professors McGonagall and Lupin are very worried about him. Dumbledore tried to use Legilimency to help him, but it was quite difficult."

Ginny looked from the pained face of her mentor to the face of the old wizard. "Is this doing permanent damage?"

"It could," he emotionlessly answered.

"Why the hell are you keeping it from him then? Is there anything that can be done to help him? Is there something that I can do?"

"Ginny," Anwen quietly said, "I think the first thing that we need to do is talk to James and Lily and then I recommend that Harry needs to talk with you."

"Anwen, please," Dumbledore said. "I do not think you're getting involved..."

"No, you don't get to ask that favour of me. He's my godson, and I am accredited at Legilimency, too. In fact, I've dealt with more memory trauma than you, remember? You send me on all of those interviews," she seethed at him. Sirius knew that she was talking about her job, and knew the weight of interviewing abuse victims had taken on her.

"Anwen, this is different, unprecedented. Your experience might not be relevant here," Dumbledore tried to tell her.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. You forget something here, this isn't a job, this is my nephew we're talking about. Family is far different from work," the woman quietly answered. "Just, go Albus. We will speak again at another time."

"Come on," Sirius remarked, holding a hand out to direct the old man to the Floo fireplace. He didn't want his face to show it, but he was happy that Anwen was standing up to Albus. Her job was taking a terrible toll on his wife, one that only he saw. You cannot live your life surrounded by the worst of human nature and not have it leave its mark upon your soul. For someone who was always so light and effervescent, Sirius had seen the darkness creep its way into his wife's life. When he was certain that the old man was gone, and wasn't going to try to come back, he went back into Anwen's office to find Anwen at her desk, Ginny sitting across from her, and her mirror out talking to James and Lily.

"James, from what I was able to glean from Dumbledore, Harry needs to come home, at least for a little while. His mind is a mess, and we've got to help him. Minerva and Remus are quite worried about him, I doubt it will be an issue if you were to pull him and bring him home."

"Thank you, Winnie. Moony had said that he sort of zoned out in class the other day, but I thought it was because of the Quidditch invitations. We figured that he was just daydreaming. I'll fire call Minerva right away," Harry's father told the pair, not seeing Sirius on the other side of the room.

"He might not want to come home right now, Mr. Potter," Ginny said, feeling silly addressing James this way. "The meet and greet is in a week, in Falmouth. He wouldn't want to give any indication that there's anything wrong with him. The teams will be watching him."

"She's right, Prongs," Sirius said, coming to stand behind his wife. "Maybe there's something we can do at school for him, so it's not so obvious. Maybe the boys can help too. I can talk with Draco and Bas tonight."

"Do you think they'd help him?" Ginny asked. "I mean, things are a tad rough between them right now. Of course, that's my fault..."

"No, it's not your fault," Anwen corrected her. "It's just something that has to be worked out as you all grow up. In the end though, they've been friends since they were in diapers. No offence, but a friendship like that doesn't get broken because they're writing to the same girl. You've been honest with both of them, that is the most important part. I raised my sons better than that, and I know Lily did with Harry as well. If we explain to them that Harry is sick, they'll put this pettiness behind them. As their mother, I am quite certain of it." Anwen turned her attention away from Ginny and back to the mirror. "Look, between Remus and me, one of us should be able to help him with Legilimency at the school. We can use Remus' private quarters; he doesn't sleep there, but he does use them during the day. I can also consult with some of the healers I work with at St. Mungo's and through the ICW. If I have to, I'll leave my job to help Harry."

Both men looked at her stunned, surprised that she'd even consider leaving her work.

"You'd really leave your job?" Sirius asked her surprised, his hands going to her shoulders and gently caressing them.

"The work is getting to me. Albus broke part of our agreement and I'm just so tired. This is more important," she said and Sirius leaned down and kissed her temple. "Harry is my family. If I can help..."

"That's very generous of you, Anwen," James said and Anwen looked away, somewhat embarrassed it seemed. "Okay, here's what we'll do. I'll call Minerva tonight and see if I can get permission for Harry to meet with you. Is tomorrow okay? I think he only has one class in the morning and then his Astronomy lab at night."

"Sure, just let me know what time. I can Floo to Remus and Eva's and then Floo from there up to the school," Anwen confirmed. "It will also give me time to talk with some of my contacts about what might be going on. The folks in the time-turner room might have some suggestions for helping memory integration as well."

"That would be great. Ginny, honey, I know it's a lot to ask, but would you mirror call Harry tonight and just talk with him. Maybe if you talked about how you're integrating the memories, it would make things easier for him?" The elder Potter asked the red head and she nodded back.

"Sure, I'll wait and mirror call later, when I know he'll be in his dorm. Or maybe I'll send him an owl note, telling him I'm calling near ten?"

"That sounds like a plan," James said. "Now, I need to tell Lily what's going on before I call up to the school."

"Would you like me to come over? You know Lil's going to be upset by all of this," Anwen asked and James breathed a sigh of relief.

"That would be...Anwen, thank you, again."

"That's what family is for. Let me just send a letter to Albus, telling him I'm taking a two week sabbatical. If he makes a fuss over this, then I'll tender my resignation. I'll see you shortly, okay?"

"Yeah, see you soon. Thanks, all of you," James said in a heartfelt way before touching the mirror and making the Black's mirror go blank.

"I'm going to the kitchen to get my owl and send Harry a note," Ginny said as she was halfway out the door.

"I have a correspondence to write as well," Anwen said. "You won't have any problems getting the children to bed, will you?"

"No, Elisabeth is here, and so is Ginny. If I get really desperate, I'll call Kreacher over. He does really well with Chrissie in the bath," Sirius replied and they both giggled.

"That is truly one strange pair, but he honestly likes her. I don't ask," Anwen answered as she took out her quill and parchment. Sirius knelt down next to his wife's chair and gathered her face between his hands and stared deeply into her bright green eyes.

"Anwen, would you really leave your job?"

"If it's between my family and my job, family will always come first. You have to know that about me." She was so emphatic in the way she said the last part that Sirius was concerned she'd gotten the wrong impression from his question.

"Sweetheart, my dearest love, I would never doubt the depth of your love for our family. If you are ready to leave work, then I am behind you, completely."

"Thank you," she answered before leaning in to kiss him.

The next afternoon Remus and Anwen were in the Defence professor's quarters. Since he didn't live on site the space was configured without a bedroom. Instead there was a large sitting area, with several couches, a fireplace that was used to both heat the space and Floo from, a small kitchenette in which brewing tea was the extent to which it was used, and a private office and small loo. Anwen had arrived a few minutes ago from his house in Hogsmeade, where she'd had lunch with Eva and the children.

"She had good ideas, and I think it might be beneficial to have Harry speak with her as well at some point. Right now, I need to get in there and see what's going on in his head," she told her lifelong friend.

"My wife is a very smart and talented counsellor, Anwen," Remus said with pride.

"I never said she wasn't," Anwen teased back. "We're in fairly uncharted branch of memory identification and clarification here. The two people I talked to at the Ministry today said they'd never heard of such a thing. Then again, they don't advise that you stay in an alternate time for more than a few hours. The fact that Harry and Ginny were there for over a year...I just hope we can help him."

"We're family, of course we can help him," Remus said just as there was a knock at the door. Remus got up and let Harry in. The young man looked bewildered and exhausted. The bags under his eyes were deep and dark and he didn't smile at seeing his aunt or his uncle.

"Winnie, I need to apologise to you," Harry started as he entered the room. "I behaved very poorly when I was at your house last and I am so sorry..."

"Harry, I know that already. You were under a lot of stress, and in a very uncomfortable position," she gently forgave him. "Come, have a seat and let's see what's going on in that head of yours."

Harry came and sat down next to his aunt on one of the large sofas. The leather squeaked a little as he sat, but then relaxed. He took a deep breath and stared at his aunt with wide eyes.

"I like you without the glasses," she told him. "You look more like your Mum this way."

"Yeah, it's sort of nice not to be a carbon copy of my dad," Harry replied. Anwen ran a hand over his forehead and down his cheek.

"You remember how this works, right? From our lessons over the summer." Anwen and James had decided to teach the boys how to fight off someone attempting to enter your mind though Legilimency. They knew only the most rudimentary form of Occlumency, but it was enough that they could protect themselves. There wasn't a specific danger they were worried about, but the _Daily Prophet_ had hired a new reporter who would dig through people's memories if she couldn't get what she wanted any other way. Given who their parents were, how rich they all became on their birthdays, and the general attitude of some young women toward them, their parents had decided some protection was in order.

"I do," Harry answered. "I take it you don't want me to try to keep you out, though?"

"That's right, I want to be able to look around. I won't do anything without telling you. I promise. Now, remember what I told you about how your mind looked when I was in there in June?"

"You told me that it looked like a locker room, well, like the Gryffindor Quidditch changing room, right?"

"That's right, and you worked to put all of your special memories into lockers, so that no one could get at them. As far as I could tell, you'd done well, but then we stopped working on it," she added quietly.

"Yeah, I wasn't much for working on it after Ginny was..." he stopped and sighed. "She mirror called last night. It was really nice to talk with her."

"I'm glad. She's worried about you. We all are." Harry gave a noncommittal shrug and Anwen didn't push it any farther. "Okay, I am going to attempt to project what I'm seeing so your Uncle Remus can see it to, is that alright with you?"

"Yeah, it's better than having to go through this twice."

"I agree. Now just relax and let me go in." Harry closed his eyes, and let the muscles in his face go limp. Then it was his neck, his shoulders and so on down his body. Anwen closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. Her hands began to faintly glow with the slivery grey of her magic and as she turned her palms upright, a misty cloud formed. Without opening her eyes, she quizzed Remus. "Am I projecting?"

"I see a cloud, Anwen," he answered and she nodded. "Good, that's what I wanted to hear. Okay, Harry I'm going in." She took another deep breath, and visualised herself entering Harry's mind, finding herself walking down a familiar corridor to the door of the Gryffindor Quidditch team's changing rooms.

The corridor seemed just as she remembered it from her youth. The banners proclaiming the years their house had won the Quidditch cup flanked the walkway, gently rippling as she moved through them. Usually when you came to the end of the hall and opened the double doors, there was an alcove where the girls went to the right and the boys to the left. There were changing areas and showers for each of the sexes, and then there was a team room in the middle.

When Anwen reached the doors, however, something strange greeted her; a third door. One was marked girls, and she gently pushed it open, but there was nothing behind it. Harry, never having been in the girls locker room, had nothing to build a memory from so it was just a dark void.

It was the mirror images of the boys' locker room doors that had her worried. She opened her eyes, still maintaining her connection with Harry, and looked at Remus. His face reflected her emotions. This was highly abnormal. Closing her eyes again, Anwen pushed on the right door, which lead to the same locker area that she remembered from working with the boy over the summer. As she began peeking around, she discovered that these were the memories from Harry's first life. She saw the tiny fragments of early memories he had of his parents, before they were murdered. He had these memories highlighted here - hung in ornate frames on the wall. There was a ratty, tattered old ball box that was covered in chains with a huge padlock on it. In messy writing was scrawled the name "Dursley".

The lockers were there as well, and on each of them a name, carefully and legibly written. She knew some of them - Ron, Ginny, Neville, Remus, Sirius, and there were names that she was unsure of - Luna and Hermione. There was even one that she couldn't figure out the relationship to, since it was labelled Tonks, and she didn't realise how Harry even knew her husband's cousin. Sirius only saw them very infrequently.

"How are you doing, Harry?" She asked, opening her eyes slightly to look at the boy.

"Fine, you're so gentle I don't feel you in there. Not like when Snape was trying to teach me."

"Harry, when did you and Severus work on Occlumency?" Remus asked tentatively.

"In my fifth year, when Voldemort was trying to get into my head. Right after Mr. Weasley was bitten by Nagini," Harry told them plainly. Anwen opened her eyes wide and looked at Remus, confused. Severus had died before Harry was born, at least in this timeline. These must have been memories from his first life. A quirk of Remus' eyebrow let Anwen know that he was as concerned as she was about this.

"Okay, Harry, I'm going to open a locker here, okay? I'm going to look and see what you remember of my husband."

"Sure Anwen, not a problem."

She closed her eyes again, and reached out for the locker. It opened with ease and inside she found some strange memories. The strongest were of an old, wearied man she barely recognized as her beloved husband. He was in the tattered rags of what was once an Azkaban uniform. His face was haggard and lined, and he was covered in tattoos she didn't recognize - save the one across on his chest for protector. There were a few more of this old man that Anwen was able to riffle through in the locker, and then a horrifying scene of him falling through the curtain in the Death Chamber at the Ministry. This one took her breath away and caused tears to come to her eyes. She knew that he'd died in this life, but she'd never really been told how. Watching her beloved disappear like that was breathtaking for her.

Suddenly then, he was young again, and she was able to watch the two of them at the Farmer's Market. She remembered the day; he'd bought her treasured Victorian copy of _Titus Andronicus_ while they were shopping. There were more memories of those days, before the battle, before her injury. The pain at seeing her uninjured limb was too much, and she shut the locker up before she could watch Harry's memories of the battle and the aftermath.

"Well," she said with a deep sigh, "that was interesting. I'm going to move around a little, okay Harry?"

"No problem, I'm so tired, you could probably make me fall asleep here," he commented.

"Go ahead, if you need to sleep, feel free," Remus told him, and Harry grunted a response that was neither affirmative nor negative.

Anwen moved her consciousness away from the lockers, and then from the room she was in, and went back to the hallway where the rooms diverged. As she opened the second door, she assumed that she'd find a space similar to the first, and was unpleasantly surprised at what she found.

This room was a wreck. There were fragments of memories all over, broken bits of things Anwen recognised. It was as if the room had been laid siege. She imagined herself picking up a bit, it was a torn picture from Remus and Eva's wedding. Harry had torn himself away from the picture, leaving the rest of his family - his parents, Remus and Eva, Sirius and Anwen and their two boys together as a family unit with him gone. Again Anwen opened her eyes and looked at Remus.

With that, Harry's head dropped to his chest and his breathing slowed greatly. He was asleep.

"Have you ever had someone fall asleep while you were in their mind?" Remus asked her.

"Never, of course, I'm usually dealing with trauma victims and they can't really relax, but...I've certainly never fallen asleep, even when you were practising on me to get your accreditation."

"Anwen, what's going on in there?"

"I don't..." before she could finish, her focus was sucked back into Harry's mind, and when she could see his memories, it was if they were under attack. Something was whipping through the room, flying wildly, causing ripples of wind in its wake. Something else was banging against the lockers, knocking things loose. Anwen had to visualise herself ducking lest she be hit in the head.

Concentrating hard, she willed a _Petrificus Totalus_ into the room, hoping to suspend the motion of whatever it was that was creating the disturbance. Everything snapped into a tableau, and Anwen recognised Bludgers as the items banging into things, and then she gasped. The speeding artefact was revealed to be a small Harry, flying around on his broom, his face distorted in anger.

Anwen quickly pulled out. She felt as if she'd been on a long journey as she panted and tried to get her bearings. Remus handed her a glass of water, which she greedily drank down. She looked at her nephew and godson. He was sound asleep, his chin tucked onto his chest as he gently snored.

"I have never seen anything like that. He's destroying the memories of this life," she commented.

"Yes," Remus answered her, "and destroying himself in the process."

"Boys, I'm sure you're wondering why I wanted to talk with all of you," James said as he spoke to his nephews, Neville and Ron in the Headmistresses office.

"It is a little strange, Uncle James," Draco said. "Is there something wrong with Mum or Dad or one of the kids?"

"No, No," James shook his head. "You're family is just fine. Your mum is down in Professor Lupin's study right now. The problem is with Harry."

"So, there is really something wrong," Ron said quietly.

"What do you mean?" James cautiously asked.

Ron looked at Neville, Bastien and Draco and then answered. "Look, Harry hasn't been...himself since we got back after the hols. He's...odd. I know that he's got all moody and stuff over Ginny and that she and Bas are writing each other, but it's more than that. There are times that I swear he doesn't know where he is or who he's with or anything; and then there are some of the things he says..."

"You've all noticed it?" Harry's father probed the boys.

"Yes," Bas answered. "We were talking about it the other day while we were walking around the grounds. I know that he's mad at me for writing Ginny, but they're broken up and all and well..."

"This doesn't have to do with Ginny, not exactly," James explained. "Do you all remember that he didn't ride the train back with you in January?"

"Yeah," they answered, almost in unison.

"Harry had passed out that morning," James told them, leaving out the reason for his unconsciousness. "Because of that, he's having some," he stopped and let out a sigh, "memory issues. His brain is having some problems sorting through things. That's why your mum is here," he said, looking at the Black brothers. "She and Uncle Remus are trying to help him sort things out."

"Mum works with trauma victims," Draco said suspiciously. "Did something happen to Harry that we don't know about?"

"No, it's not trauma related, but your mum is a trained Legilimens, and that's how she's helping Harry. She's probably the most gentle memory expert that there is," James mused, his thoughts not really being on the conversation that he was having with the boys, but instead a few floors below where his friends were working with his child.

"If Harry's sick or something," Draco started, "we want to help. I know he's stubborn about going to Madame Pomfrey, so do we need to stun him and carry him to the hospital wing?"

"No, it's nothing like that. Just keep an eye on him while he's out. If he starts seeming disoriented, get him to sit down and remind him where he is. Oh, and I know there will be flying as part of the meet and greet for the Quidditch league, can you watch that he doesn't fall or anything?"

"Not a problem, Mr. Potter," Ron stated while the other two nodded. "We really don't want anything happening to him."

James nodded, thankful for the strong friendship the boys had, as well as their willingness to help each other. They talked for a few minutes before James told them to hurry off, as to not miss their late afternoon lessons. The only one who had a class was Ron, his NEWT in Magical Creatures. As they reached the door, Bastien turned around and looked at his uncle.

"Uncle James, I know this is hard to talk about, but..." the boy paused and looked at his brother quickly. Draco nodded and then Bastien looked back at his uncle. "You're certain this doesn't have anything to do with Harry's relationship with Ginny?"

"It does, in a way," James tried to evade the question that he feared was coming next, "but not directly."

"Oh," the boy answered, his face crestfallen. "Look, I know she knows more about all of this than she's letting on. She's made comments while we were talking this week that just...she knows, doesn't she?"

"Yes," James reluctantly admitted. "She knows everything."

"Does it have to do with the accident last year?" Draco continued his brother's questioning.

"It might," James again avoided a direct answer.

"Please," Bastien begged, "I just want to know if I have to..."

"Look, boys, there's a lot I can't tell you right now, not because I don't trust you, but because it's very complicated. As for Harry and Ginny, no, they're not back together, which is what I figure you're worried about." Bastien nodded slightly and James sighed in response. "When we can, we'll share more about it, but for right now, I can't say more. I do, however, appreciate you boys keeping an eye on him."

"We will, Uncle James. One of us is almost always with him, we'll watch out," Draco said before pulling on his brother's robe sleeve to get him to move. The boys descended the stairs and James sat back down and ran his fingers through his hair, hoping that his son would be alright.

"Why am I wearing a suit? Whose suit is this anyway?" Ron asked as the boys were walking off the Hogwarts property on Friday afternoon to head to the Lupin's house to Floo to Grimmauld Place to have dinner with the Black family and then Apparate to Falmouth.

"It's your suit, Ron," Harry reminded him. "Your Mum sent it to school when you were invited to the tryouts," he said in a very exasperated tone. Ron seemed to be even more clueless now that he was in "love". It wasn't that Harry was upset that Ron and Hermione were together and happy; it was comforting if he was to be honest. He could remember watching them bicker and thinking that they were well suited to one another.

"Oh, yeah, I guess I was thinking about something else that day," he said unconvincingly.

"Yeah, full frontal snogging Hermione," Draco teased. "Honestly the two of you are like magnets."

"We're not that bad," Ron barked back. His friends had walked in on him and his girlfriend in the dorm a few days ago. Thankfully, they were fully dressed, but Hermione was mortified. They pledged that from then on, they'd be sealing the curtains and putting up a Silencing Charm.

"Yeah, you are," Bastien answered back. "You looked like you wanted to mush her into you the other night in the Library. Thank Merlin it was only the two of you, Heidi Person and me. Heidi couldn't find her glasses, so she couldn't see how horrible you two were."

"They're still not as bad as when Ron was dating Lavender, right Won-Won?" Harry said with a laugh and the other three boys stopped to stare at him.

"Lavender who?" Ron asked. "The only Lavender I know is Lavender Brown, and she and Dean have been dating since third year. I never..."

Harry looked stunned and furrowed his brow in confusion. He looked away and the other three exchanged a pained look. Bastien threw an arm around his cousin's shoulder.

"Hey, it's no big deal," he said, "we all get confused sometimes. I certainly never tried to keep straight all the girls that my brother there had a crush on. It was a new one every week." He was trying to make Harry feel better, but it was disastrous. "Come on, we've gotta get going. Mum's going to be waiting for us, and if we're late, she'll start to worry, and then she'll want to check us all over when we get there."

"Huh, oh, yeah," Harry said, still distracted. The quartet made its way through the sleepy village, smiling at the people they did happen to pass, but it was obvious that something was on all their minds.

Dinner turned out to be a vaster event than the boys were expecting. Not only was the whole Black family there, sans Ethan who was still at school; the Potter family minus Evan; the Lupins and the Weasleys, minus Percy who was busy at work completing a paper at the Ministry tonight. Charlie and Eira, Anwen's youngest sister, were there as well. She was proud to show off her slight baby bump for their families. The first Weasley grandchild was due to be born in late August or early September.

When dinner was over, Draco and Bastien pulled their father and uncles aside to tell them about Harry's confusion on the walk over, and to find out if they had any advice on how to handle him over the course of the next day while they were at the Quidditch tryouts.

Meanwhile, in the dining room, Harry had changed chairs when his sister and Lilyan Black had vacated the table to go up to the sitting room to watch some television, leaving a seat next to Ginny open. The pair had been speaking nearly every night this week, with Ginny helping Harry figure out which memories belonged in which timeline.

Harry had finally been honest with her, told her about some of his more questionable actions since January, and what was happening when he, as he put it, 'stepped in the shite'. He was particularly remorseful regarding their conversation in the greenhouse at the Black's. Harry promised that it wasn't an excuse, but he was exceptionally angry and he felt that he was being judged for actions that he didn't even see as his own. They were both wondering if the healthiest thing they could do would simply be to forget the actions of their childhood selves from this life and move forward, their relationship based on their mutual feelings and a pledge for a new start. Ginny couldn't quite get herself to that point.

They'd also discussed their intimacy in both lives, and while Ginny had never admitted it aloud, she did miss Harry's touch and kisses. When he moved closer to her, he took her left hand from under the table and held it tightly in his.

"How are you feeling today?" she asked.

"Not bad," he lied.

"Harry, you can't lie worth dung," Ginny reminded him. "Truth please."

"Okay, I got confused on the walk over to Lupin's, thinking that Ron had dated Lavender in this time. The memories are so strong and I was sure I was right..."

"Yeah, well, we were all horrified by that experiment gone wrong in his love life," Ginny consoled Harry. "It left such an indelible mark on your brain that you can't wash that one away." Harry gave her a half-hearted grin.

"Thanks for talking with me," he said, "I know that things between us are..."

"They are," she spoke before he finished. "I wish things weren't so complicated, there's so much of you that I miss. But then there's the other stuff, and now you're sick..." Harry looked pained at her calling him sick. "Harry, if I asked you something, would you be honest with me?" He perked up at her question, and began to nod furiously.

"Completely, what do you want to know?" Ginny hesitated and then drew in a deep breath.

"Are you still seeing the girl that you were with on Valentine's Day?" The words hung in the air and it took Harry a minute to put the bits together in his head. His expression changed completely when he realised what she was talking about.

"Wait, you thought I was out on a date with Erica?" He was almost laughing as he said it.

"You weren't on a date?" Ginny was confused now.

"No, I haven't dated since we got back to this...you know what I mean. I haven't dated anyone since January," he explained.

"The who was she? What were you doing together?"

"Erica is one of the Chasers on the Qudditch team. Her boyfriend left school last year, he's in the apprentice program at the Ministry to work in Magical Transportation and had to work. She needed new Quidditch gloves and asked me to come and help her get some. She'd never played before this year, and while she's got some raw talent, she doesn't know much about the game really. We stopped in for some hot cocoa before heading back to the castle. That's it," he explained and Ginny felt like an idiot.

"I just assumed that you two were...I'm so..." Harry stopped her from apologising.

"Given what I'd done last fall, it was understandable," he pardoned her behaviour. "I wish I could change all of that, but I can't, not without going back in time and I'm in no rush to play with time any further," he sourly said. "I wish I could just make you see what's going on in my head, see what these attacks are like. It's frightening, Gin, it's like everything just slips away and I can't make heads or tails of it. I'm so scared I'm going to get lost in it, or the stupid Harry will take over. I'll blank out and then I'm all dizzy and I just...Ginny, what the hell is happening to me?"

Ginny looked over at the one who had been her husband, and saw the frustration and despair in his face. It reminded her of the night that Dumbledore had died, when it had only been her love that had got him to leave the body and begin to grieve. Sliding her hand out from his, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"I don't know, Harry, but I promise you, you're not alone. You won't go through this alone," she whispered in his ear, causing Harry to relax into her embrace. When she gently pushed herself away from him, his face had returned to a more placid state. This caused her to break out into a tooth-bearing, eye-crinkling, dimple-creating smile. The action and reaction was not lost on his parents or hers, who were watching the young pair from the other end of the room. Lily gently reached over and grabbed Molly's hand and gave it a squeeze.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Hello again, I couldn't believe the response to the last chapter. Seems that people are happy that "old" Harry finally made an appearance. Deep thanks to my beta, Arnel, for her tireless work to make me better. MNF**

**Chapter 6:**

**Battre (**_**English translation: Battered)**_

The initial Quidditch meet and greet went well, and much to everyone's great relief, there was only one moment where Harry became confused while he was away. Thankfully, Ron had been by his side and the issue was quickly put to rest.

The angry emotions the boys had towards Harry had been quickly let slide when it became apparent there was so much more going on than they had understood. Harry really was sick, and he needed his friends. Even Bastien and Draco had stopped worrying about what Harry might do to Ginny and instead rallied wholeheartedly behind their friend and cousin.

On 15 March, the second round of the draft season began when the invitations to spring training camps were sent out. All four boys were inundated with mail that morning. Draco received five bids, but quickly wrote back declining them all. He'd been accepted into the Astronomy Academy a week before, and then had promptly gone to his parents house in France and proposed marriage to Elisabeth. They would be married before the start of their course work in the fall.

Bastien, Ron and Harry all were given multiple bids as well, and were willing to at least entertain the idea of a professional Quidditch career. Since they were limited to accepting only three bids, the boys sat down with their letters, trying to weed them down. There were obvious choices that went into the different piles.

"Moose Jaw?" Harry said sceptically. "Exactly in where in Canada is Moose Jaw?"

"Saskatchewan," Bastien answered looking at his identical notice. "That's like halfway around the world. How long do you think it would take to get there?"

"I don't know," Harry said as he still stared at the parchment with the flying moose on it. "I would guess that we'd need to take the daily international Portkey to Toronto and then go from there?"

"Sounds like way too much work for a bid that I'd never take," the Ravenclaw answered before he put it into his 'decline' pile.

"Yes!" Ron cheered with a fist pump. He was holding a bright orange sheet of parchment.

"Chudley Cannons?" Harry half-heartedly asked, already knowing the answer.

"Of course! They really need a new Keeper; Alvin Atwater was blinded by a Quaffle earlier this year, well in one eye. Makes him easy to score on, since he can't see anything on his right."

"Yeah, that would explain their poor record," Bastien commented, then added, "at least for this year." Harry sniggered along with him.

"You know, they're really good, they've almost won three times this season," Ron defended his favourite team.

"Almost only counts in horseshoes, hand-grenades and hexes," Harry parroted back one of his mother's favourite sayings.

"Yeah, well, this is in my definite pile," he added as he ceremoniously placed the letter on the table near him.

"Oh, look, I received one, too," Bastien said, not sounding that pleased as he lifted the orange parchment.

"Blimey, we could be team mates," Ron said excitedly, and Bas just dipped his head, sighing, his friend didn't get that it wasn't excitement in his voice. Ron went back to sorting through his bid mail. "Seriously, that's the only bid I received from a team in Britain? I mean travel is nice and all, but..."

"Quiberon?" Harry teased, lifting the bright pink parchment. "Ron your jersey would clash with your hair! At least they're only in France. Seriously, Sumbawanga and Tarapoto make Moose Jaw look close," Harry added, lifting Ron's other parchments.

"Well fine, other than those moosey folks, who did you get bids from?" Ron replied with an irritated tone.

"Well, there's Vratsa, Kenmare, Puddlemere and Portree. Three guesses which one I'm definitely going on?" Harry asked as he moved one of his invited into a separate pile from the moose invite.

"I know it's Puddlemere," Bastien jokingly replied knowing only death would keep Harry from The Pride's invite. "They sent me one, too. Look, I know that Portree is your team, but can't you at least come on the P.U. try out with me? Isn't an old friend of yours on the team?"

"Yeah, my first Quidditch captain, Oliver Wood, is their Keeper. Sure, I'll go with you on that one. So, I can only accept one more? Kenmare or Vratsa?"

"Depends," Draco said as he came to sit at the table with his brother and friends, "would you really want to live in Bulgaria?"

"It's not so bad," Harry answered, "but I can't believe they really need a Seeker. Viktor Krum is still on the team there. I don't want to really be his back up, he's not that much older than me."

"Sounds like you made your mind up, then," Ron commented. "Okay, so Harry's staying close to home. What about you Bas? You doing some international tryouts with me?"

"Well, I really have something else I'm working on for next year," he said cryptically, looking at his brother, "so I really think that the only one I'm going to take is Puddlemere's invite." With that, he moved the remainder of his invitations to the decline pile.

"What are you hoping to do next year?" Harry asked.

"Can't tell you just yet, but when I know, I promise I'll tell you."

"O-kay. You're acting barmy here, Bas," Harry commented.

"Like you should talk. What exactly were you out over in potions class today?" Draco asked. "You freaked poor Neville out."

"It was nothing, really, just..."

"Just what?"

"He was brewing the potion differently than I remembered it, that's all," Harry quietly replied.

"When exactly did you learn to brew the Alihotsy Antidote? It was only added to the curriculum this fall?" Draco asked, sounding worried.

"Um, my Mum taught me," Harry stammered out. He couldn't very well exclaim that he'd learned to brew it when Ginny had been given a dose of Alihotsy at Sirius and Anwen's magical wedding.

"Wow, if that's what she was teaching you at home, why aren't you getting straight O's again?" Bastien questioned.

"Don't care to," Harry hastily added. It was another thing that just made his friends wonder exactly what was going on with him.

James Potter was pacing the length of the Defence professor's office inside the personal quarters, his hands raking over his head with worry on a cold April night nearly five weeks later.

"Prongs, man, you've got to settle down," Remus tried to calm him. "Healer Weston is out there with him right now, and everyone is working at figuring out how to reverse this. Honestly, Anwen is in India, learning how to astral project so she can do more when she's inside his mind. They're doing everything they can, you've got to relax."

"Moony, it's the fifth time this month I've been called up here because of the nightmares. Thank Merlin that Bastien was with him the last week at the Puddlemere tryouts. Harry nearly blacked out when he was flying. It's only getting worse. I'm losing my son, Moony," James eked out, sounding defeated. Remus stood and hugged his lifelong friend.

"You're not going to lose your son, we're not going to let that happen," the professor promised.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because, he still responds to Ginny. When she talks with him, he knows what's going on. I still think she's the key."

"But, after that picture last week," James said, slumping down in a chair. "Sirius said when she saw it, she burst from the room and hid in her bedroom for the rest of the day."

"It was a picture in the gossip section of The Daily Prophet. Ginny knows enough to take it with a sceptical eye," Remus attempted to console his friend, but he had been shocked when he saw the picture as well. A girl wearing next to nothing was straddling Harry's lap at the club the Puddlemere United players were known to frequent. His hands were on her back, fingers splayed down to her barely covered bum. It was the second night of their training camp, and the picture appeared in the next day's paper.

"I hope so," the boy's father quietly added. "I'm taking him home tonight, or whenever the Healer says it's okay for him to Floo. Minerva said we can either bring him back for his NEWT's or we can just let him take the International Standard exams this summer. That's saying that he wants to continue his education, if he's able to..."

"He's going to be fine, James, you have to believe that. You're his father, you can't lose hope."

"Moony, it's not me, it's Lils," he quietly confessed. "Because of everything, not just the stuff she went through when she was pregnant with him, but knowing the man that we'd been friends with, she's always believed that Harry would grow up to do great things. She's convinced he was destined to be the man we knew. Watching him age, seeing who he did become, she's always had a hard time rectifying it. She wanted so badly to believe the man we were friends with was indeed the child we would raise. I learned a long time ago that growing up without all the stress would probably make our son very different. He is. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, he's just a different person. This, the whole memory thing, Harry seemingly weak and lost, it's breaking Lily in two. She loves our son, but, she doesn't quite recognize him."

"But, we're all different from what we would have been," Remus replied back. "Anwen was reading Sirius' journal from the past - the life we all didn't lead - and apparently in that life, she was pushed relentlessly to learn all sorts of magic she didn't even realise she was capable of. That's where she came up with the idea to go and learn astral projection. The thing is, she was a more powerful witch, but she was desperately unhappy. Sirius wrote in his journal about holding her while she writhed in pain with the headaches that it caused. Even with everything she went through in this life, I doubt that she's upset that she didn't have that pain. He never knew his son," he paused and took a breath, "I was alone, in the end, all alone - the rest of you were dead."

"I know, I just wish Lily..." James didn't have to finish, Remus understood. The door to his office opened and Healer Weston stood there looking tired and concerned.

"Bev, what's the news?" Remus asked. Healer Weston worked with his wife and Anwen on many cases and she was considered a friend by both families.

"I have him calmed down and gave him a dose of Dreamless Sleep, but we must be careful about how much we give him. You're only supposed to use it for a few days at a time, a week at most. He's needed it for nearly three weeks now, and the doses he requires..."

"Anwen will be back tomorrow, she should help," James suggested.

"I hope so, Mr. Potter. When he awakens, he should return to his home. His outbursts are too violent for him to be here with only students around him," she explained.

"We were planning to have him return to the Manor. Is there anything else?"

"He was screaming about Voldemort. It would seem that the memories we're trying to suppress are becoming stronger. I wish I could tell you what to do, but at this point, short of having his mind constantly monitored so that we can stop his attacks before they begin, there isn't much that can be done. It would appear the only person he fully trusts is Miss Weasley. I feel badly, it's such a burden to place on someone so young," the healer explained. James stood and walked over to her, offering his hand.

"I appreciate all that you're doing," he said quietly. "We'll take him home and help him in any way that we can."

"Of that I have no doubt. I will be by tomorrow afternoon to check on him. Do not hesitate to use the communication stone if you need me sooner," she said before she turned to walk into the main room of the quarters. James and Remus followed her and bid her good-bye as she threw some Floo powder into the fireplace and left. James sat down in the leather wing-back chair next to the fireplace and stared at his son, his face and body twitching in his sleep on the couch. Remus didn't know what to say, so he put his hand on his friend's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"It's strange to me that you're defending him," Ginny said softly, almost sombrely to the boy sitting across from her in her bedroom at Fair Garden. The Black's had left Quimper earlier today and returned to Portree to be closer to the Potter family now that Harry was home. She sat in her special chair, he on the edge of the bed as they spoke.

"Look, Ginny, I was with him that night, the picture really isn't what you think it was," Bastien explained. "He was completely confused and you didn't see what happened before and after it was taken," he explained. He'd returned home for a short time to check on Harry and speak with Ginny.

"Then tell me all of it," she demanded. "Make me understand why I shouldn't think this wasn't just another girl in his long list of them." Ginny was hurt by the idea that Harry had been out clubbing with a woman of such questionable morals. What she found even more shocking was that Bastien was here defending him. She would have figured he'd rather she be upset at Harry. He had to know it would make her more likely to turn to him. The situation made no sense to her.

"Ginny, we were sitting there, he was drinking a butterbeer, when he caught a glimpse of someone across the way. Said that it looked like Aiobheann," as he said the name, Ginny immediately had a mental picture of the nymph they had met when they were in Nottingham. She knew that he'd been quite moved by her story, and what the nymphs had done for him before the battle.

"I know who that is," she said quietly, which surprised Bastien.

"Oh, well then he sort of blacked out. That girl from the picture, she came over and was hitting on him, but it was like Harry wasn't there. I wasn't sure if he even saw her or anything. I tried to get her to leave, but she wouldn't listen to me, and then she was on his lap and the photographer was there...it all happened so fast."

Ginny nodded, not sure if it did make her feel better that he hadn't been carousing, but instead having one of his episodes.

"Some of the guys from the team knew the girl, said she was some sort of stupid fan groupie...they pulled her off him and then sent her packing, but Harry was really out of it. I spilled my Firewhiskey on him to make them think that he'd had too much to drink and took him out of there and back to our hotel. He was out of it, mumbling about only a wife being able to please her husband. He said your name quite a bit too."

Ginny was silent through all of this, unsure what she was supposed to say to Bastien, or how to rectify her heart and head.

"Why are you telling me this?" she blurted out.

"Look, I really like you, and I want you to like me, but I'm not stupid. Ginny, he loves you still and I get the feeling you love him too. I don't say that I understand it, but...even if we were to get together, I'd be afraid that you'd always be thinking of him and wondering 'what if'?. There is no way I want that," Bastien explained. "I'd much rather you know everything, and then make your choice. It just seems fairer in the end."

"You're a remarkable person, Bastien," Ginny said quietly. "Some girl is going to be lucky to have you."

"I'm not that great, Gin," he tried to brush her off. "I want to win your heart with an even playing field. Harry's sick right now, winning when he can't even play just seems...shallow."

"I still think that you're a good guy, Bas. Thanks for telling me the truth. Mr. and Mrs. Potter keep telling me that he's asking for me, but I was hesitant to see him."

"Maybe you should go. Whatever it is that's going on with him, it's pretty bad."

"Yeah," she said with a nod, "it is."

"I've gotta get Draco and head back to school, but look, there's something else I have to ask you."

"Anything, Bas, you know that." The boy nodded at her and continued.

"Look, if all of this were too much for my Mum, you'd say something, right? Like to Dad or Draco or me? You'd tell us if you thought that Mum was hiding something? I know that she is just trying whatever might work, but if it was hurting her..." Ginny looked up at her friend, and was torn about what to say.

"Bas, I don't think your Mum can hide anything from your Dad."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. He does sort of obsess over her, doesn't he."

"Always has," Ginny quipped and Bastien looked at her oddly, having her suddenly remind him of the strange comments that Harry made.

"Well, I need to be going," he uttered, confused. "I want to go to the Potter's before going back to school. I'll see you soon, Gin."

"Yeah, I'll be here," the girl said quietly as she watched the Black's son walk from her room. After a moment's thought, she grabbed her cloak and took off after her friend and confidant for the last nine months. She directed her chair toward the hall and called after him. "Bastien, hey wait up."

"Gin, what's the matter?" He asked as he stopped and turned in the hall.

"Can I come with you, to the Potter's, I mean? I'd like to check up on Harry." Bastien's face fell just slightly, but his heart sank in his body. He got the feeling that Ginny had made her choice, whether she was ready to admit it or not.

"Sure, I'll help you though the Floo."

"Harry, you can't be serious about that..." Ginny giggled. "How could you do that to Anwen? I mean if it would be a great prank for Sirius, but she'd be embarrassed too."

"Yeah, but I mean really, he does sort of bark and growl like a dog when they were... We could all hear them up there."

"That's not fair, Harry. None of us want the actions from when we're teens brought back up when we're in our thirties. I am quite certain that is one of those stories that Anwen hopes no one remembers, especially not to her kids. Come on, for me, drop it."

"Geesh, Gin, you take all the fun out of life," Harry complained.

"No, I really don't" she mocked him back. They were sitting in the small second floor sitting room connecting his bedroom to the hallway. He and Ginny had been caught in his bed the summer before, and the rule now was that he had to entertain in this room, the door open. He thought it was silly, but Ginny was more than willing to comply. She was sitting across from him in her special chair and he lounged in a large leather recliner. The couch and settee had been removed, replaced with seats that were designed for only one person. Harry didn't tell his parents if Ginny sat on his lap, all the seats were still perfectly good for two people.

"Okay, that's a memory from 'The London Year'," she mocked, "how about one from when we were children in this timeline. Do you remember my fourteenth birthday?" A gentle smile crossed Harry's face before he started talking.

"Of course I do," he offered, "you were wearing a yellow sundress and your hair was hanging down and you'd curled it and when we got to your house, I tripped over my own feet from staring at you."

"I always wondered if that's why you fell on your face. I do remember Ron teasing you for it," she remarked with a similar smile on her face.

"Your brother is a real git some days."

"Only some?" They both laughed at the joke. "I was so nervous around you all day. I thought I'd spilled my whole slice of cake down my front. Thankfully Aunt Winnie saw what had happened and had me cleaned up before my brothers saw. She was always really good at fixing stuff like that."

"From what Mum told me, it wasn't always easy for her to be the youngest one. Dad and Sirius and Remus teased her a lot. Of course, she got them all but good with that Halloween prank and her Engorgement Charm, but still..."

"Yeah, she always thought ahead when I was little. She was my favourite auntie, not even knowing how important she'd be to me after the..." Ginny paused and looked away. She was about to say accident.

"So, anyway," she went on, leaving her pensive mood behind her. "There I was all nervous, and there you were all nervous and Bill was laughing at me because he could see us both being all jittery and junk...it was horrid."

"Yeah, but you liked my gift," Harry said happily. He was right, she did like his gift.

"Ah, but there were two of them, if I remember correctly?"

"Well, one was wrapped up, the other one..." he stopped and realised that he was leaning in toward Ginny.

"It was better than you telling me that you thought I was pretty on the train ride home from Hogwarts in June, or your holding my hand while we were at the beach for your birthday," she answered, leaning forward herself.

"Was it better than the bracelet with your name on it?" He asked her, moving himself forward in his chair.

"Definitely," she whispered. They were close, their breath mingling and dancing in the space between them, flitting along their lips and pirouetting on the tips of their noses. "Just thinking about it makes my heart flutter."

"Does it really?" Harry queried, his eyes half closed, his breathing becoming ragged as he was so close to her.

"Always, Harry, always," she whispered before she closed her eyes too. They hung there, suspended in space, their mouths only inches away from the other before Ginny nervously closed the distance. The minute her lips felt his, her body exploded with electricity that she'd forgotten about.

The kiss was gentle, he cautiously taking just her top lip between his before releasing it. They both pulled back enough to see the other, opening their eyes to peer into the other's, before simultaneously closing their eyes and letting their lips rejoin. The second kiss was stronger, more insistent, Harry's tongue tentatively swiping along Ginny's bottom lip. She answered with a flick of her own.

They kissed for a minute longer, until Ginny pulled her mouth away and leaned her forehead against Harry's. Neither spoke, instead working to get their ragged breathing under control.

"That was..." Ginny paused, "damn, I've missed that. Definitely better than the bracelet." Harry couldn't keep his chuckle in.

"So have I."

Neither moved, nor spoke, they just breathed. Harry desperately wanted to kiss her again, or moreover, wanted to wrap her up in his arms, move her onto his lap and snog the life of out her, but he didn't think that would be prudent, so instead he just stayed there, letting her make the next move. Unfortunately for Harry, her move was to pull back and then back her chair away from him.

"I'll be by tomorrow to see you," she said hastily as she turned and headed herself toward the door. "Sleep well tonight." With those few words, she was gone. Harry sat back and wondered what the hell had just happened.

"This isn't ever going to work if you don't stop laughing," Ginny chastised him. "Stop it, now." Of course, he didn't. "Come on, this worked for Mrs. Black, perhaps it will help you too." They had shared their kiss a week ago, not had another once since, but were getting closer nonetheless. Ginny was attempting to do floral therapy with Harry.

"Ginny, you're going to expect me to balance a flower between my eyes, and you think that I'm not going to laugh? This is silly!" Harry retorted.

"But, it works," she told him with an irritated voice. "Come on, Anwen will be back from the shops soon and she wants to work with you again when she arrives. Then there's that announcement that she and Sirius are making tonight. The boys are all coming home to find out what it is."

"Fine, but after the fuss you made putting the Clove branch on me, this was destined to have laughter involved," he teased her.

"I had to put the branch on your...you know, down there," she said with a blush.

"It's not like you haven't seen it, touch it, played..."

"Stop right there, Mr. Potter," she commanded.

"Yes, ma'am," he complied while taking a deep breath. "Okay, so you've got a clove branch down on my man parts..."

"Don't call them that. It's your base chakra." If Ginny was going to do the Flower Healing that she'd learned to help Mrs. Black, the least they could do is call things by the correct names.

"Fine, there's a clove branch on my base chakra," he mockingly answered her. "That's supposed to...?"

"It helps to banish negative thoughts. The idea is that we're going to cleanse all of your chakras and then, hopefully, help to put things to rights. Next, you have some silky oak, and that's to help with your self love." Harry began laughing again.

"Since we've come back, that's all I've had, Gin. Lots and lots of self love." Ginny groaned at his insinuation.

"Moving on," she pointedly added. "The St. John's Wort is on your solar plexus, and it should calm your fight or flight response to your new memories. You must learn to either live with all of your memories, or allow the old ones to be forgotten."

"I know," Harry answered softly. She put a gentle hand just below his heart, her fingers caressing the bundle of green leaves that was bunched in the centre of his muscular chest. Ginny could feel the fluttering of his heart underneath, which caused hers to flutter in return.

"The basil here will help to repel negativity while the ceanothus on your throat is to help you with your sense of loss."

"What if it's too hard to move past what I've lost?" His voice sounded heartbroken as he whispered to her.

"If you don't, we can't fill the void with new memories." They were both silent until Ginny placed the lilac between Harry's eyes, causing him to shut his lids and instinctively take a deep breath. "The lilac will reverse psychic attacks, even if they are coming from within. Lastly, I have these Anise flowers," she remarked as she placed the cluster of the delicate, tiny white blooms on his forehead. "These will keep your nightmares away."

"Now, just relax...relax...relax." Ginny spoke in a compassionate and even timbre. She reached over to the small bowl that she had the flowers in and took out the final one. "The honeysuckle in my hand will help you let go of the past."

There was silence in the room, thick and heavy, neither knowing exactly what to say. Ginny reached over and took his hand, weaving her fingers through his. The presence of her touch, even in this very small way, was enough to truly begin to bring him some peace.

"Aunt Winnie, that has to be one of the coolest things I've ever seen," Harry gushed at the silvery grey misty projection of Anwen that was walking the room with them. His aunt was seated on the large sofa, her legs crossed in something she called the lotus position. Her hands were on her knees, palms up. She took deep breaths with her eyes closed. "So you think that thing is going to be able to walk around inside my memories?"

The image disappeared, and the human Anwen opened her eyes and released the flexibility charm that had allowed her to pull her right leg into such a position. Still blinking to focus her eyes, she spoke.

"That's the theory we're working under. Jagjit - the teacher I worked with in India - was hopeful that it would work out the way we planned, but since this is something no one has ever dealt with before, he could be completely wrong. I figure it's worth a shot," she answered while rubbing her temples.

"Are the headaches that bad?" Harry asked, and his friend, aunt and godmother looked at him.

"They're manageable," she answered. A growl was heard across the room. Sirius was seated in the corner, reading the paper, attempting to ignore the conversation that was going on, and the apparent pain of his wife. At the moment, he was failing in his endeavour. "If you're not going to be fair about this, I'll send you home. There are things that need to be taken care of there..."

"No, I'm staying here," he cut her off. "Everything is fine at home. Between Ginny, Elisabeth and the boys all the work will get done. You're much more important right now." He never looked up from the Prophet, but Anwen knew he was serious about this.

"Fine, but please, keep your opinions to yourself." This caused Sirius to scowl again. She ignored him, and turned her thoughts and attentions back to Harry. "Okay, lie down over there," Anwen said, indicating the other couch across from her. He did as he was told, the width of the fireplace was the distance that they were from one another.

"Remember, I'm not going to hurt you. I just need to see if this will work, if I can indeed put memories back together for you."

"Got it," Harry replied, feeling quite relaxed after his floral therapy with Ginny this morning. He wasn't sure if it was the magic that she'd used, or her presence that had calmed his soul, but he wasn't going to complain.

The weeks in India had been intense for Anwen, but now, she was doing what only she could do for Harry. The headaches were as bad, if not worse, than those the Sirius of the journal had written about. This, however, was a dire circumstance they were in, and Anwen wouldn't shy away from someone in need.

Anwen charmed her leg and resumed the meditative position. She didn't bother projecting what she was seeing this time, it took too much magic and energy to hold it, and Sirius wasn't paying attention anyway. She made her way through Harry's mind, coming to the changing room of the memories from this life.

The damage was extensive, far worse than when she'd last looked, but she also knew the nightmares were far more serious and frequent than they had been before she'd left. There were tatters of things everywhere. Memories of his brother and sisters, gifts that he'd given them ripped to shreds. Pages from photo albums had been torn from their bindings and faces had been scratched away.

The only part of the room that remained untouched was the locker that said 'Ginny' and the small bowl of flowers that sat on a bench, not far from the door. It lightened Anwen slightly when she realised that they were the flowers Ginny had been using this morning for Harry's healing. Perhaps it would work?

She found the picture of the family from Remus and Eva's wedding, the one with little Harry torn away from his family, and lifted it up, clutching it to her chest. Anwen then went searching for the corner of the picture that shown Harry. It took her a while, but she found that in astral form, she could manoeuvre much better within Harry's mind. In the top of his locker was every little picture of himself that he'd ripped away from a family photo. A whole pile of miniature Harry's. Anwen couldn't even imagine what it meant, but somehow a mirror that was shattered into a million shards came to her mind. She wanted to see what would happen when she tried to repair a memory.

"Harry, I'm going to try something. Are you still feeling alright?" His response was a grunt. Anwen continued to be amazed by the ease that Harry took to her walking through his head.

Holding the two bits of picture in her hand, she raised her left one and began the repairing incantation when a noise behind her made her quickly turn heel. It was a version of Harry. An angry Harry. A Harry holding a Bludger bat high above his auntie's head. She screamed at him, "Harry, no!"

In the room, the movement was too quick for Sirius to notice, instead he was alerted to the situation when he heard Anwen's muffled scream accompanied by a thwacking noise as Harry stood over her motionless body with the fireplace poker in hand.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note: I know that the cliffhanger at the end of the chapter really threw many of you for a loop. I'm not going to apologize for it, I'm a fan of them. It might be hard to believe but we are nearing the end of this story, there are only a few chapters left. My deep, deep thanks to my amazing beta, Arnel, who not only corrects my goofy comma usage, but she also sits and sips tea with me. I bow my head to her expertise. The shortest day is past and our daytime is getting longer, the promise of the new year awaits us all. May it be a year of health, happiness and Harry for you all. I was blessed by the FF community this year, and I will not forget how you all rallied around me through what was a trying time. My you all have a wonderful holiday and a bright new year. Mutt N Feathers **

**Chapter 7:**

**Perte (English translation: Loss)**

Sirius sat slumped in a chair next to his wife's bed on the fourth floor of St. Mungo's, the picture of despair with his head in his hands. The room was dimly lit and eerily silent, save the chimes that rang from the monitoring spells cast on Anwen. One would go off for each breath the spell made her take. Another pulsed more quickly, tracking her erratic heartbeat. A final one was pinging when brain activity was detected. While none of them had much volume, the combination of them all created a cacophony for Sirius, and he just wanted them to shut up.

He couldn't believe he was here, sitting by the bruised and beaten frame of his beloved Anwen, waiting to see how her body and mind would heal. Harry was two floors below, heavily sedated with potions and charmed to his bed. His physical attack of Anwen had been unexpected. Had she not screamed, Harry might have hit her several more times with the wrought iron poker he grabbed from the set by the fireplace. Sirius stunned Harry as quickly as he could, but the damage was done. A gash fell along his wife's head, and they'd had to charm the hair off of her skull to repair it properly. A second blow hit her in the back, along the line of the shoulder that had been hurt in the Death Eater attack all those years ago.

Harry collapsed into the coffee table at being stunned and had broken his wrist and cut his forehead. Sirius yelled for James and Lily, both of whom were in the kitchen monitoring Anwen's success with the astral projection into Harry's mind. It could safely be said there was no success. It took the three adults to get the injured pair to hospital, as Anwen was thrashing out in pain and all of Harry's muscles had tensed. It was only hours ago, and yet it felt like days.

The door to Anwen's room opened, and James slipped in. Sirius wasn't sure that he'd ever seen his friend look as old as he did today. He wanted to comfort him, but he was too pained to move.

"How's she doing?"

"Her body will recover fine, well as fine as my little one's body ever is. The damages weren't as bad as they looked. It's the impairment to her mind, Prongs. Healer Weston thinks she was attacked there as well. It's this aspect that's making her brain function so volatile," he explained as he pointed at the blue light that was pulsating and pinging with no discernible pattern.

"I'm so sorry, Padfoot," James eked out through his now flowing tears. Seeing his brother in all but blood weep triggered the same in Sirius as he rose to hold onto his best mate. "If I ever thought that he'd do this to her..." The sentiment went unfinished but still understood.

"None of us could have predicted this," Sirius stammered. They stood there, embracing and weeping for their shared grief.

"I wonder if it's already too late for him, Padfoot," James mumbled as he cried. "Was his life so bad that he wants to remove his memories of it?"

"I don't think that's it," Sirius explained, "I think it's the loss of Ginny."

"Eva's bringing her over. When she found out, well, Moony said he'd never seen her that crazed before. He's with my kids and he called Charlie and Eira to take yours back to _Fair Garden_. Alice is on her way over here too. Lily is nearly inconsolable and with Eva helping Ginny, I needed someone else to be with her. Lil's afraid of what you and Anwen will think."

"Tell her to stop, or I'll go tell her," Sirius immediately responded. "I don't blame you, and I don't blame him. He's very sick. What kind of family would we be if we turned our backs on each other when we're in need?" Sirius explained when he'd finally gotten hold of his emotions. "I just...we can't lose either of them. Today was supposed to be such a happy day for us, Anwen was back home, we were going to tell the children about adopting their newest sister and then this happened." Sirius spoke as one who was uttering his stream of consciousness, not necessarily intending to share this information.

"Wait, you're adopting another baby?" James inquired, surprised but not shocked. He wondered if he was beyond shock today.

"She's...it's a long story, but Sitara is in need of a special family to take her. She has an unusual gift, and with Anwen's visualization skills this little girl would finally have a family that she could live with. Anwen's astral projection teacher, Jagjit Shresth, he works for the Ministry in India, knew this little girl was in need of a family. He helped us arrange everything," Sirius explained. "Oh, and she's not a baby, she's already six. They've been looking for the right family for her since she was born."

James smiled at the news; children were always welcomed gifts to their extended family. "What is it that made her so difficult to place?"

"She's an empath. She knows how to use her skill, and it made her difficult to live with. Apparently she and Anwen took right to each other, and well...anyway, she'll be in England in a week."

"What a bright spot in all of this darkness," James mused and Sirius laughed.

"Her name means star, so I guess you're right there." Sirius paused to sigh. "Has there been any more said about what might be happening to Harry?"

"None," James answered sounding devoid of hope. "He became violent, with Anwen of all people. I'm not sure we can have him at home, Sirius. He's got his little sisters there, and I know he loves them and wouldn't ever hurt them on purpose, but I didn't think he'd ever hurt his Aunt Winnie either."

"You know, when Ginny gets here, things might change?"

"Maybe, but if he reacts poorly to her...if we've got to leave him here, over on the locked ward...he's my little boy," James managed to say before he began to cry again. Sirius took hold of his best friend and held him while the emotions poured forth. Sirius couldn't manage much else, but he could be there for his friend right now.

In a hallway inside _Fair Garden_ a young woman was looking at the Floo like it was her worst enemy.

"We don't have to go right now," Eva Lupin told her. "We could wait, he's still sedated heavily, and he will be for a while now. He probably won't even recognize that you're there with him."

"I know," Ginny answered quietly, "but something says I need to be there with him. I'm too much of a mess to be around the kids anyway." Ginny knew if the younger Potter or Black children saw her they'd immediately sense she was upset. Her eyes burned from the nearly non-stop crying binge she'd been on, and her face felt swollen and sore. If the girl was honest with her honorary aunt, she'd tell her all she wanted was her bed and some rest.

"Ginny, you need to stop worrying about everyone else and think about what you want and need," Eva slipped into counsellor mode. "Do you want to go?"

"I do, I have to see for myself what he's..." she trailed off. "I need to see Anwen, too. I can't believe that he hurt her."

"It took everyone by surprise. Remus is acting rather stoic about it, but to know that his best friend was attacked and by Harry no less. We're all shaken up, if you need more time..."

"Time isn't going to make this better. We both know that's the truth. I need to go and help. Harry seems lucid when he's with me. I just...Mrs. Lupin, he hurt me so badly. Everything was broken by him; my heart, my body, my spirit, but I never really contemplated a life that wouldn't have him in it. Now, it's like he's gone. I feel like it's my fault," Ginny began to cry again and Eva wrapped her arms around the girl, bending over awkwardly to reach her while seated in her chair.

"Ginny, child, Harry's problems weren't created by you and you can't expect to heal them yourself. It's going to take lots people working together, including Harry. He needs to stop assaulting his own memories. That is his choice, not yours. Please, don't blame yourself for what's happening," Ginny let Eva's words sink in and then nodded her head against the older woman's shoulder. When she could, she wiped her face and pulled a handkerchief out of the pocket on the side of her chair and blew her nose.

"I want to go, I need to go. I need to talk with Harry and I need to see Anwen," Ginny said resolutely. Eva nodded and helped the girl through the Floo.

One of the few redeeming parts of being on the critical care ward that Anwen was housed on was the private Floo for family to come and go as they needed. Eva showed her hospital identification at the desk and they were ushered into the room that her friend was in. Her heart broke at the sight of Sirius in the chair next to his wife's bed. He had laid his forehead down on the mattress, his left hand entwined with hers, his right hand brushing along her forehead. He was telling her about their life together. There were times like these that Eva had to remind herself just how far he'd come from the crazy playboy that she'd known at school.

"Sirius," Ginny whispered from the doorway and he lifted his head and smiled at the girl.

"Hey Eva, Red, you doing okay?" Ginny took his speaking to her as an invitation to come into the room, Eva following.

"For now, I've haven't been up to see Harry yet. How is she doing?"

"About the same. The healer was here a while ago, gave her some more potions to heal the fracture in her skull. There still hasn't been any change in her brain..." he stopped and swallowed back tears and it made Ginny want to cry even more. "We're just going to have to wait and see when she wakes up."

Ginny had made it to the bedside and she took Sirius' free hand between her own. "She is so strong, and she loves you so much. Whatever she's doing in her mind, she's doing it so she can get back to you. I have no doubt about that." Sirius smiled again at the young woman, his appreciation for how mature she'd become deepening.

"Thank you, Red. The two of you, so small and your bodies so...and yet you are the tenacious set of women I know," he leaned over and kissed her forehead.

"Can I talk to her?" Ginny asked, changing the subject to something easier to deal with.

"Sure, do you want privacy?" He moved to get up from his chair.

"No, don't leave her. She wants you here, she always wants you nearby," she told her guardian and he settled back into his seat. Ginny continued to hold one of Sirius' hands and then took Anwen's with her other.

"Hey, Anwen, I know that you're hurting right now, but I need you come back to us, okay? You've got that brood of yours, they miss you. I'm going to go and talk with Harry right now, see if I can help him. You keep getting strong, alright, and I'll come see you again. Don't wait too long, though. Sirius might pull his hair out if you do." Sirius snorted at the comment and it made Ginny feel better that he found the humour in the statement.

Ginny released both of the hands and began to back herself away. "I need to see Harry."

"Go on, tell James and Lily that nothing's changed up here," he requested and she nodded.

"I'll be back down once she's settled upstairs. Maybe I can reach her or her consciousness," Eva suggested. She was highly skilled at Medical Occlumency and she and Anwen had often worked together with the people Anwen encountered through her work.

"Thanks, Eva. We'll be here."

It wasn't until Ginny reached the hall that she allowed herself to break down into sobs again. It took her several minutes to get her emotions under control so that she was able to move again. She hadn't even noticed that Eva had been weeping herself. As close as Ginny was to Anwen, she and Eva had been friends longer. When you added Lily to the mix, you had women who were as close as sisters.

Using her hospital credentials, Eva had the pair use the employee lift down to the second floor. Ginny was thankful they were able to avoid the general public, as she was certain the media would have loved to get their hands on the story of Harry hurting Anwen. Slander and salaciousness sell papers.

Harry's room was dark with James on one side of the bed and Lily and Alice Longbottom on the other. James immediately stood and came over to greet Ginny with a gentle kiss on her crown before he enveloped Eva in his arms, whispering something in her ear as he held her. She nodded against his shoulder without giving a verbal reply.

The counsellor in Eva took over, and she crossed to where Lily sat, holding Alice's hand. When Lily saw one of her two closest friends she stood and threw herself into her friends arms.

"Why? Why would he hurt her this way," Lily sobbed. "What's going to happen to him?"

"We don't know any of that yet," Eva said quietly, "but he's going to need you to be strong as he gets better. Harry's not himself right now, he's very ill and it's going to take the love and care of his family to help him get well."

"But he hurt Anwen so! How are she and Sirius ever going to forgive him..."

"Mrs. Potter, they already have," Ginny chirped up before anyone had a chance to rebuke Lily on her statement. "They aren't mad at him or you. Sirius is just worried about her...**and** **him**." She stressed the last few words, making sure that the older woman understood. Lily nodded and let go of her friend and walked over to the chair that the younger red head was seated in.

"Thank you for coming Ginny. I know that he's hurt you, but I can't lose him. He only seems to react to you, at least in any positive way."

"There is nowhere else that I'd be. Can I talk with him, alone if you don't mind?" Ginny asked and while Lily looked pained at the idea of leaving Harry, she knew that he'd be in good hands.

"Come on, let's get some tea," Alice suggested. "I think you need to get out of here for a few minutes."

"I think that's a capital idea," James seconded and came and wrapped an arm around his wife. "We'll be back in a few." Ginny nodded as he left. Eva Lupin took Ginny's hands and looked her in the eyes.

"Are you sure you can do this? I can stay, sit way over in the corner, just so you're not all alone with him," she suggested. Ginny indicated it wasn't necessary.

"You said yourself he's heavily sedated, he's not going to hurt me. He can't; they've got him charmed to his bed," she quipped, attempting to ease the brevity. Eva smiled at her.

"Okay, we won't be gone long," she promised and then slipped out the door, leaving Ginny alone with the comatose Harry. She manoeuvred her chair over to his side and laid her head down next to his, her lips very near his ear.

"Hello Harry," she whispered. "I'm here. I miss you. I want you to come back to me."

At those words one of the monitors above Harry's bed began to ping louder and faster. Ginny's head popped up in panic, looking at the small blue blinking light, but unsure of what it meant. Before she even had a chance to register what was happening a medi-witch, a healer and Eva ran through the door, the Potter's on her heels.

"What's happening?" Lily screamed.

"His brain is functioning again, but too much, he's..." the healer said. "What did you say to him?" It was a demand that Ginny couldn't refuse.

"I told him I missed him," she said quietly, upset that she'd done something to further harm Harry.

"Oh, Ginny," Lily cried as she threw her arms around the girl.

"Is he waking up?" James asked.

"No, he shouldn't be, not with as much sedative in his system as we've given him," the medi-witch said emotionlessly.

"We don't know what's going on in there," the healer interrupted and he began moving his wand in complicated arcs and circles over Harry.

Two floors below Sirius was struck dumb and had fallen from his chair to the floor when Anwen began to scream aloud. It was a gut wrenching howl, her body arching up off the bed as if she were struck with the Cruciatus Curse. The little lights and bells had sped up, blinking and pinging wildly and fear for his wife's safety was of paramount concern.

Her Healer and a medi-witch flew into the room, their wands drawn and pointed at Sirius and then down at Anwen.

"What did you do to her?" The Healer demanded.

"Nothing, I had dozed off, and then she just started screaming," Sirius tersely explained, unhappy that it was insinuated that he would do anything to his wife.

"Contact the second floor, find out how Mr. Potter is!" The healer commanded the medi-witch and she left the room in a hurry.

"What's happening to her?" Sirius enjoined the doctor.

"I don't know," he explained before putting a silencing charm up on Anwen. With the sound of her scream gone, she appeared even more tormented, thrashing back and forth upon the bed, her face contorted, mouth open without any sound to accompany. "Her brain functioning is..."

They were interrupted by the medi-witch's return. "Mr. Potter is also in an agitated state," she explained. "Miss Weasley was in speaking with him, and then he just went into some sort of 'brain overload' were the words the desk clerk told me."

"We've got to sever this link between them, I don't know what sort of damage it's doing. You say that she was in a meditative state when the initial attack began?" The Healer questioned Sirius, again.

"Yes, that's exactly it," he answered for what felt like the one-hundredth time today. He was saved from having to further explain himself by the arrival of Healer Bev Weston, the memory specialist who worked with Anwen and had been helping Harry.

"I was just down in Harry's room but I can't get into his brain, his Occlumency shields must have been up when he attacked her, and now I can't bring them down. I was hoping that I'd have more luck if I tried through Anwen's consciousness," she explained as she rounded the bed and came to sit next to Anwen in the chair Sirius had formerly occupied.

"Bev, please, help her," Sirius pleaded and the older woman nodded her head and closed her eyes while drawing her wand.

"I can't project like Anwen, nor can I astral walk the way she does for that matter...no one really can besides Perenelle, but I can get in, I think. Anwen has a very secret back door, removed from her Occlumency shields. She created it a few years ago so that if she were ever so overtaken by the memories created by her work, she'd have somewhere to go and hide," Bev mumbled aloud, and Sirius felt his stomach lurch at the idea of Anwen needing to hide inside her own head. He was thankful she'd resigned permanently a few weeks ago. "We were reticent for me to try before now, but the situation now warrants my intrusion," she explained as she began her Legilimency. "There it is."

Sirius knew not to speak to someone while they were doing Legilimency. Loosing your concentration could be detrimental to both the person entering another's mind as well as the person whose mind was being entered. He was downright terrified for the welfare of his beloved right now. Bev's gasps and incoherent uttering weren't helping his peace of mind either.

Seconds felt like hours, and each one that the clock in the room ticked off boomed in Sirius head. He felt his heart racing between the sounds, his breathing increasing along with it. The medi-witch moved and pulled something from the pocket of her gown and handed it to Sirius. He gave it a sniff and recognized it as calming draught. He gladly drank it down.

"Saints be praised, how is she doing that?" Bev muttered and Sirius desperately wanted to know what was going on. "Come on now girl, please, come out with me."

Bev's head twitched from side to side, and Sirius was watching the cringes and flinches of her face carefully. Then as quickly as she had started, Anwen stilled, her breathing began to slow and her mouth closed and the edges curled up into a gentle smile. Her mouth moved to form a word, but the silencing charm was still around her, so while he didn't hear it, he knew that it was his name.

Bev relaxed her body against the chair, nearly panting from exhaustion. She laid her wand in her lap and opened her eyes.

"Go downstairs, tell them that I was in Anwen's mind," Bev spoke commandingly to the medi-witch, "I've severed the connection between Harry and Anwen. He is fighting himself in there. It appears to be an all out brawl. They need to do a full neurological block on him or he's going to kill himself." Sirius gasped and there was one final tick of the clock before the woman ran from the room.

The Healer looked dumbfounded. "I've never heard of such a thing."

"I knew that he was attacking his memories, I'd seen that part, but to see him..." Bev couldn't even finish she was so shaken.

Sirius stumbled to the end of Anwen's bed and sat down. "How bad will it get?"

"I have no idea how much damage he's already done. Anwen had erected some kind of barrier in there so that he couldn't damage his mind more, but..." Bev shook her head, "she had gotten herself into a corner of her own brain, watching carefully that Harry didn't do any further damage, but she couldn't move either. She was so near her own backdoor..." Bev swooned, clinging to the sides of the ladder-back chair to keep from falling off. "If I'm this wrung out then she's got to be depleted from being in there for so long."

"I'll get a strengthening potion for you both," the Healer told them as he went to leave the room.

"Bring her a rehydration one as well, I can see it in her face that she'd dehydrated, probably has been since she was in India. Never does drink enough water when she's doing these missions of hers," Bev scolded Anwen and Sirius nodded. The Healer nodded and left.

"What do we do now?" Sirius inquired.

"We wait. When she's strong enough, she'll wake up."

Ginny was stiff the next morning when she awoke in Harry's room. She'd slept in her chair all night, hoping for some movement from Harry. There hadn't been any. She rolled her shoulders forward and then back and then stretched her arms over her head. Her movement caught the eye of someone across the room. She was surprised to see Eva still sitting there.

"Did you stay all night?" Ginny asked.

"It was the only way that James could get Lily to go home for a while," the elder woman confessed. "I promised if there was any change that I'd call her immediately."

"There wasn't any need to call, was there?" Ginny said glumly, already knowing the answer. She looked at Harry. His breathing was controlled by a charm, his heart had a spell cast upon it to continue its beating. A jar of feeding potion was on a shelf above Harry's bed, attached to pots of blood strengthening potion and replenishing solution. At a given interval they were charmed to give Harry a dose to keep his body alive. His brain had been completely shut down. It was the only remaining way to keep Harry safe. The Healers had been honest about the level of damage they could detect. Harry might never fully recover.

Everyone had urged her to return to _Fair Garden_ last night, but Ginny couldn't be anywhere but where she was now.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Eva Lupin asked the girl. Ginny needed to think about her answer.

"Drained, limp, guilty." Eva looked at her puzzled.

"Drained and limp I understand, but guilty?"

"I still feel like this is somehow my fault," Ginny began to explain. "I just wish that I'd told Harry that I was getting closer to forgiving him sooner. Maybe if I had, this might not have happened."

"Are you really ready to forgive him?" The counsellor in the older woman prodded.

"Yes, nearly anyway. It's not that I'm happy with him, or some of the things he's done, but...we were broken up. I really can't fault him for dating while we were apart. As for being a git, well, I'm not exactly a peach to be around three days a month. Harry used up all his PMS days in a few months, I spread mine out more."

"I see." Ginny sighed in frustration at the vague response.

"You're acting like a counsellor right now."

"I am a counsellor. Only you can know what's in your heart and what's best for you. I would advise that you don't make any hard and fast decisions right now. It's not the time for you to be doing anything of that kind."

"I won't, I promise," Ginny swore. "I just don't have any plans to leave him alone." Eva nodded and stood to stretch. As she did, the door opened and James came in.

"Anything happen overnight?" He questioned hopefully.

"No, sorry," Eva said. "Where's Lily?" James sighed as Eva closed the space and hugged her friend.

"She's at home. I had to medicate her last night. She's blaming herself for all of this. Calling herself a bad parent, telling herself that she didn't do enough, say enough. I tried to talk with her, remind her that Harry's an adult, making his own decisions and we can't control those, but..." he trailed off.

"I was waiting for that to happen," Eva said quietly.

"You were?" James replied surprised.

"Of course, she's a mother, an attentive mother at that. It's normal. I can't tell you how many parents I've had in my office that think they've somehow failed as a parent because their child made choices that weren't the best. Parents can only give their children the foundations, give them the base. What a child - especially a grown child - does in any given situation, that's up to them," she explained.

"I don't know, Eva. If we gave him such a good base, why did he make the choices he did?" James retorted.

"Just because a child has a strong moral base and an ethical set of ideals, doesn't mean they are going to live within them. Learning to navigate life is a lesson like any other. Sometimes it requires trial and error. When we were in school, you didn't do well in Astronomy. I remember you fumbling around just to find the most basic of things through the telescope, right?"

"Yeah, but what does Astronomy have to do with Harry?"

"Just listen to me. You sat in the same classes as the rest of us, learned the same lessons, had the same tools, and yet, you never were as proficient at it as the rest of us. What grade did you end up with on your OWL in the class?"

"I got an A, you know that. It was the only class that I got an A in, but I worked the hardest for it," James answered. Ginny, moving closer, was intrigued by the conversation.

"Yes, you had to work at it. Just because you went to class didn't mean that the knowledge and skill were dumped into your head, you had to learn what to do with it. Parenting is like that. We want to impart our knowledge on our children, want to just tell them what to do to avoid our mistakes in life, but we can't. Living, like anything else, is something that we do by trial and error." Eva finished and James was staring at her.

"If that's true, then why did he do something that was so far outside what Lily and I would have ever done?" James pressed.

"Neither you nor Lily lived through the trauma that he did last summer. It's not an excuse, but it is a way to explain things. He was self-medicating, just the same as if he were drinking to excess or mixing up his own potions to take. He needed something to numb the pain that he was feeling," she explained and James stumbled back into the chair that she'd vacated. Ginny had begun to silently weep in her seat.

"I never thought of him as needing to..."

"Neither of us did," a tearful Ginny added as she moved closer.

"Both of you, stop what you're thinking and listen to me," Eva said, putting her hands on her hips and appearing oh so authoritative. "You're both feeling guilty because you somehow think that you're responsible for Harry's actions. You're not. He made his choices, he did what he wanted. What matters now is how you behave toward him in the future. He's going to need support when he comes out of this state, and we're all going to have to rally around him." James and Ginny both heard her, and thought that there was deep merit to what she'd said. "Would it help if I went and saw Lily?"

"I think it would," James said quietly, still partially lost in his thoughts.

Lily Potter had been upstairs in her son's room, conversing with the day medi-witch when she heard a commotion in her hallway downstairs. She hurriedly left the room to see what the tumult was. The sight that greeted her was a happy one, if not slightly puzzling.

"Anwen, what are you doing here?" Lily asked her friend as she came through the Floo followed rapidly by her four daughters. Anwen was still moving rather slowly, even two weeks after Harry's attack on her. Lilyan, Jamie and Chrissie excitedly ran into the Potter house, taking off to find their friends. Sitara was less sure of herself and clung to her adoptive mother's hand.

"I escaped," she teased. "Sirius was in the garage playing with my birthday present, so I brought the girls over. They, and I, were worried about Harry and Ginny. Has there been any change?"

"None," Lily told her quietly. "We just don't know..."

"Look, I want to try to reach him. Please," Anwen asked.

"Anwen, if Sirius, or James for that matter, were to find out I let you do this..."

"Lily, please, I know I can help. We've only got as long as Sirius is tinkering with that darned car. Let me see if I can reach him." Harry remained in his cognitive repressed state. He'd been allowed to come home from hospital, but he had full time care here. Three Healers came by each day to assess his progress. A full team was working at St. Mungo's attempting to work out how to help him. Ginny remained as well, only leaving his side when she needed to use the loo or when she'd fallen asleep and they could move her to the guest room across the hall.

"Oh, Anwen, it's not that I don't want you to, I just, I can't take any more disappointment." Lily looked away as her tears cascaded down. Anwen released her small daughter's hand and wrapped her arms around her best friend and let her weep.

"We will find a way. There's a wonderful hospital in Scandinavia. They deal only with brain trauma and injury. I'm sure that we could send him there for treatment. There's also the magical trauma centre in Mexico," Anwen tried to settle her friend.

"That's so far away..." Harry's mother bemoaned.

"Lil, with a Portkey it isn't so bad."

"But the other children..."

"Have grandparents and aunts and uncles who can take care of them. If it comes to that you know that your family will rally around you," Anwen promised as she felt a tug at her skirt.

"Misses Anwen," Sitara beckoned from near her leg. Even when Anwen had released the little girl's hand, she had placed her small hand on her adoptive mother's thigh to wait until the hand holding could resume. Anwen broke away from the hug and looked down at the young girl's large brown eyes and huge smile.

"What is it sweetheart?"

"Misses Lily feels sad. I know you don't like me using my magic, but can I help her please?" Anwen gingerly knelt down to look at the girl, the child still smiling, her tongue poking out through the gap of her missing teeth.

"You may ask Misses Lily if she'd like you to help her," Anwen explained and the small child looked up at her aunt.

"May I help, Misses Lily?"

"You may, thank you," Lily responded. Sitara raised her hand and reached for Lily's. As she did Anwen could see the little girl's vibrant orange magic course from her hand into the adult's. Lily got a small smile on her face as she felt her mood shift. Sitara was a remarkable child with an exceptional gift and skill to use it. "Sitara I feel so much better, thank you."

The little girl had only been in Britain for ten days, but she had already settled herself into life with the Black family. Both Anwen and Sirius had noticed that she preferred the company of adults to that of her siblings, the exception being Jamie Black, one of the ten-year-old twins. Anwen chalked it up to her middle daughter's gentle nature and old soul.

With her heart feeling a little better, Lily relented to Anwen's request and they climbed the stairs together, Sitara remaining with them.

"Jamie," Anwen called and her blonde daughter poked her head out into the hallway from Lilyan's room. "Can you come and take Sitara for me? I want to see Harry."

"Sure Mum," she said as she walked closer, reaching her hand out for her little sister. "Come on, you can brush my hair and then I'll brush yours."

"Can't I stay with you, Misses Anwen?"

"Not right now, sweetie," Anwen told her even as her heart broke a little at the sight of the tears that might fall from the child's mahogany orbs. "Harry would never mean to hurt you, but he could by accident. I can't bring you in with me. As soon as I'm done, I'll call for you. Okay?" Sitara nodded at this and went off with her sister.

The women passed through the sitting room off Harry's bedroom and Anwen stumbled back when she saw Ginny through the doorway. She hadn't seen her surrogate daughter for about a week, and she was shocked at her appearance now.

"Lil, what happened to Ginny?" The young redhead had her chair in the farthest corner of Harry's room, facing Harry's bed. Her hair had lost it's lustre and just hung down, no curl or body to it. Her eyes had deep circles underneath them and her skin had taken on a rather sallow hue.

"She won't leave. She just sits there, staring at him. I have to beg her to eat, make her go in to sleep, although I think that she sneaks back in when we've nodded off. I'm nearly as worried about her," Lily explained. Anwen rubbed her forehead and took a deep breath. It would appear that they both needed someone to reach them.

The pair finished their walk to the bedroom, and the Medi-witch got up to greet Lily and report that nothing had occurred in the last five minutes. Anwen took another chair that was near Harry's head and lifted his hand, explaining she was there and what she was going to do.

"Mrs. Black, I don't think this is wise..." the Medi-witch started.

"I'm not going to provoke him, I just need to see if I can get in," Anwen explained.

"Please be careful, none of us have been able to breach his shields, even in this state. Your body might not be able to handle another attack," the witch explained.

"I know, but I have to try," Anwen said quietly. She closed her eyes and began to breathe deeply, her hands glowing in the silvery mist of her magic. Everything was quiet for moment, none of the other women even breathing.

"Oh, my, Goddess," Anwen exclaimed as a tear ran down her cheek.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: This chapter is a little shorter, sorry about this, but it was the natural place to break. There isn't a cliffie at the end of this chapter, so those of you complaining about the last two weeks ran rest a little more easily this week. Deep thanks to my dear beta, Arnel, who held my hand as I deconstructed and then reconstructed this chapter. I don't deserve her. Thanks to everyone who is reading, and for those who review. I'm finding a whole new round of readers as the holidays are upon us. Welcome to all of you. May 2011 be a year of happiness, health and peace to all of you. Without further adieu... on to what exactly Anwen saw. MNF**

**Chapter 8:**

**Gris (English Translation: Gray)**

What Anwen could see in her mind's eye horrified her. There was nothing in Harry's mind, no fragments of memories, no small Harry flying around attacking things, no glass bowl of flowers, nothing. His mind had become a vast field of gray mist for as far as she could see. Anwen knew that she'd muttered an oath at the sight before her, though she would be hard pressed to repeat whatever it was that she'd said. Becoming cognizant that both Lily and Ginny were in the room with her, Harry's godmother swore to herself that she'd say no more that could potentially upset the pair.

Anwen willed her essence to move through Harry's mind, although she found it difficult to do so. The Healers had advised her against doing too much magic just yet, her body had been so weakened by the veracity of Harry's mental attack that it was taking quite a long while to heal completely. This activity would fall outside the purview of those instructions she was certain. Moving amongst the mist was akin to walking in water, she was able to do it, but the steps were slow and deliberate. Anwen continued to search, constantly feeling as if there was something just on the horizon, but it never grew any closer to her. Mirages of memories were either floating in and out of existence, or Anwen was simply willing her mind to see something that did not exist.

She continue to search, struggling to refrain from becoming frantic, but at the same time knowing that the longer she went without any signs of Harry the worse the situation was. She had pushed herself past tired and was nearing exhaustion when she heard her husband bellow, closely followed by his heavy footfalls stamping their way up the stairs.

"Anwen Llyn Hodgson Black, I swear that you will be the death of me..." he swore under his breath as he cleared the stairs and rounded the corner to come into view of Harry's room. The sight of Lily weeping while holding onto the hand of a vacant faced Ginny made him stop and proceed more carefully. "Anwen," he said more quietly as he stepped into the room and gently laid his hand on her shoulder.

Anwen didn't want to stop searching for Harry, but she couldn't continue on - neither her body nor her husband would have consented to it. Slowly and reluctantly she pulled her mind away from Harry's, taking a deep and steadying breath before opening her eyes to look at her husband. She could see his anger at her disobeying the advice of her medical team, but there was also resolution in Sirius' gaze. He acknowledged that there was no way he could have kept her from trying to help.

Sirius was halted by what he read in his wife's eyes. He'd always been able to read her face as if it was a book, even when they were little more than children and Anwen started at Hogwarts. He knew better than anyone when she was frightened, overwhelmed or in despair just by the way she held her eyes. It unsettled him that he saw all three in her face right now. He could tell that she didn't want to share whatever she'd seen with Lily and Ginny, protecting them from further distress. She would hold it until they could speak in private. Sirius dipped his face in a nearly imperceptible nod, letting her know that he wouldn't press the issue until they were alone.

"Anwen, what did you see?" Lily questioned through her tears. Anwen swallowed hard before speaking.

"He's not attacking himself anymore," she answered.

"Well, that's something, right?" Harry's mother further pressed, hope lacing her words together.

"It is definitely something," Anwen replied too quickly and Sirius decided to change the subject.

"Anwen, you weren't supposed to be doing so much magic," he gently scolded her, "you know you're not going to get better without following the Healer's instructions."

"When have I ever done everything they told me?" She quipped back. "Anyway, you were out tinkering, AGAIN, and the girls wanted to see their friends. It's good for Sitara to associate with other children her age." Sirius bent down to look at his wife, shaking his head.

"Did you overdo it again?" he asked. She lifted her fingers and let about an inch or two space between her thumb and forefinger.

"Might have, just a bit," she answered with a heavy sigh and an overtly petulant face. He leaned in and kissed her forehead before standing and walking the few steps to his godson's bedside. He brushed aside the fringe that was obscuring his forehead and laid his hand on the boy's crown.

"Harry, you know there is a trio of women out here who are waiting for you to come and speak with them. We're all pretty worried about you, so any time you feel like waking up it would be great. We're all here for you, just come back soon, okay?" When he was done, he leaned down and kissed the area where his hand had just laid. When he turned back to the room, Ginny's vacant stare hadn't changed, but Lily looked sadder and Anwen more despondent.

Sirius asked Lily for some tea, and the trio of old friends left Harry in his room with his medi-witch and Ginny. They had tried valiantly to get the young woman to leave and come socialize with them, but the girl roundly refused. He passed a worried look to his wife as they exited the room.

"She looks...desolate," Sirius whispered to Anwen as he slipped his arm around her waist to help hold her up, noticing that she was more unsteady on her feet than usual.

"I'm not sure what's going on there, but from what Lily said, it's bad. No one can seem to reach her," Anwen whispered back. The adults finished the walk to the kitchen in silence, and once they were seated Sirius started asking about Ginny again, hoping to deflect Lily's further questioning of Anwen.

"Do you think that maybe we should call Arthur or Bill over?" Sirius asked.

"They've both been here, as has Charlie. He was going to bring Eira over to talk with her. Apparently they've bonded, since there's at least another 'Weasley girl' now," Lily explained with a smile. Anwen knew that her little sister and Ginny had become closer since Charlie's marriage. She also knew that while Eira was willing to try to help, this was far out of her area of expertise and she was worried that she'd make things worse by saying the wrong thing.

"I'll chat with her, see if she wants to come over sometime with me," Anwen said as she lifted her mug to her lips. "In the meantime, Ginny needs some help. Continuing as she is, it's not going to make it any easier for Harry."

The others nodded in agreement. Anwen didn't say it aloud, but she was convinced that the lives of the two youngsters were so completely intertwined that if Harry didn't recover, Ginny wouldn't either. Before the conversation could continue a herd of small footsteps alerted the adults to their children's imminent arrival.

"Mum, Brynne took the doll that Grandma Evans gave me for Christmas," Emma complained, Lilyan Black nodding her head to support her best friend.

"We needed it, and I took it only after she'd taken my blankie and threw it on the top shelf," Brynne retorted. The adults were confused why she was holding the aforementioned beloved baby blanket wrapped around her sister's doll.

"If Emma took your blankie, then why are you holding it?" Lily asked her daughter.

"Because Jamie got it down for me," Brynne explained. "I gave Sitara my baby doll, so I needed Emma's."

"I see. Unfortunately, that isn't a baby that should be played with. How about if you use your puppy instead?" Lily suggested, to which the youngest Potter nodded and gave Emma back her doll. "Brynne, please stay out of Emma's things. Emma, don't pick on your sister." Lily droned, giving the same instruction that she repeated frequently. More footsteps alerted them that another round of small Potters and Blacks were about to arrive. This time, however, the sound was accompanied with the sounds of crying. Jamie Black entered holding the hand of little Sitara.

"Mummy, I don't know what's wrong with her," Jamie explained as she brought her sister further into the room. "She was playing dolls and brushing my hair and then she just started crying." When the small girl saw Anwen, she released her sister's hand and flew across the room into her mother's embrace. Anwen lifted the girl into her lap, Sirius placing a gentle hand on the child's back while at the same time reaching out for his older daughter's hand.

"Sitara, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Anwen whispered.

"Sadness, just too much sadness. I can't make it stop. Misses Anwen, make it stop," Sitara explained through her tears.

"Okay, angel, it's okay," her mother soothed. "We'll be leaving soon." Anwen shot a look to Sirius who understood. Begging their departure, he gathered up his daughters and Sirius took his wife and children home.

That evening, when all the children were in bed and with Elizabeth in charge of the house, Anwen and Sirius slipped through the Floo to the Lupin's home. Anwen needed Eva to see what she'd seen, and she hoped that together they'd be able to find a way to approach James and Lily with what she'd found.

"That's just..." Eva said, dumbfounded, "I've never seen anything quite like it. There's just nothing." The four were sitting around Remus' small pensive, Anwen's memory of being in Harry's mind this afternoon playing.

"I've seen some people do interesting things to protect their minds from trauma, but I've never encountered a space with nothing in it. Even when I read the twins before they were born there was something there," Anwen explained.

"You read your twins before they were born?" Remus clarified, surprised.

"I," Anwen hesitated. "It was an experiment, really. All the children had been very strong in their magic before they were born, but the twins were different. Lilyan had her thing for oranges, but John and Jamie...I knew they were a handful even before they were born."

"You mean the dueling cravings?" Eva asked and Anwen nodded slightly.

"That's only part of it. It was obvious which one wanted things, and knowing them now I'd say that Jamie wanted the salty and John wanted the sweet, but no, that wasn't the sum. One day, about a month before they were born I was upset at Sirius. He'd come in from riding and left his boots in the middle of the foyer, again." At the mention of this Sirius nodded his head, apparently remembering whatever story Anwen was beginning.

"Well, I tripped on the aforementioned boots, and naturally being eight months pregnant with the twins, lost my balance and fell to the floor. I was rather irritated as I had been telling him about the hazard he was causing. He heard me fall, came running and the twins knocked him to the ground and held him there. They were apparently irritated that Daddy had hurt Mummy. After that I wanted to see just how aware they were of things, if I could. Doing Occlumency on them was definitely one of my more interesting mind trips."

"What did you see?" Remus asked, fascinated.

"They didn't have pictures or words to tell their stories - no real eyesight to give them visual references - but they communicated through sounds and emotions. They knew who people were not only by the way they heard them but also on how they felt when they recalled the voices. It was disconcerting to say the least, but when I stopped relying on my eyesight and instead used my other senses I was able to get my bearings. It was fascinating. If you'd like to see the memories I'd be glad to share."

"It sounds quite unique, maybe once things are calmer," Eva remarked and Anwen nodded.

"Wait a minute," Sirius spoke up, something catching his memory, "you don't yell about my boots anymore, but I still kick them off when I walk in the door." Anwen gently patted his shoulder.

"Yes, dear, I know," she sighed. "I've charmed the boot mat to go and find your boots and bring them back to the mud room."

"You charmed it? I thought I was the charming expert in this family?"

"It might be your career, but I held my own at school. I seem to remember some pink fur..." Anwen and Eva immediately began to laugh while the men shook their heads.

"Enough of that. Tell me about what you saw with Harry," Remus hastily changed the subject. As quickly as the merriment had come to the room, it had now left it.

"It was just a vast sea of nothing." Remembering how the void felt sent a shiver up Anwen's spine that was only quelled by her husband's hand resting between her shoulder blades.

"Could he have been employing some form of Occlumency?" Remus asked.

"I suppose, but it's not like there was something repelling me or even concealing his memories. They were just...gone," she explained.

"We encountered some strange things in Bosnia last year," Eva reminded her, "was there anything similar?"

"Most of those were cases of brains being scrambled after they'd been tortured. The memories were there, they'd just been tangled together, like a big ball of twine that needed to be straightened and then rewound. It was nothing like this," Anwen said with a defeated air before she put her hands over her face and laid her elbows upon the table. "I feel like the answer is right there, just out of reach."

"You'll find it, love," Sirius tried to console her.

"But will I find it in time? Harry's not out of the woods, it's no longer life or death for him, but he's not well. Now I'm worried about Ginny, too. She's fallen so far, so quickly already."

"She did look poorly today," Sirius confirmed.

"Poorly is an understatement," Anwen corrected. "I could barely get her to speak or move. What I found the most disturbing, however, was that she doesn't ever get closer to him. Lily told me that she sits over on the far side of the room and just watches him. I don't know what's happened to her, but she's not the same girl she was before Harry took ill."

"It's a rather stressful thing to have the person you love be in a coma," Sirius reminded the group. "I've been there, done that."

"True, but..." Eva began, the brow furrowed as if she were in deep contemplation. "You and Anwen are married and have been together for years. Harry and Ginny aren't even a couple. His illness shouldn't be affecting her."

"She's still in love with him," Anwen said. "We knew that he still loved her..."

"From the looks of it though, love might not be enough," Sirius added quietly. "It was like he was sucking the life out of her."

Eva slowly blew her breath out, but didn't say anything. Her friends took it as confirmation that she was out of ideas as well.

Another week passed and the school year ended, heralding the arrival home of the Potter and Black boys. Bastien had avoided going to the Potter home for he couldn't stand the sight of the shell Ginny had become. He'd accepted that her heart belonged to Harry, but it didn't change his sadness at what she'd become. He just wanted to see her smile again, and it pained him that he couldn't do that for her. Only Harry could. Three days after he arrived home, however, a task required him to visit Potter Manor, and Lily Potter specifically. He chose to go just after breakfast, his hope that the usual commotion of the house would mask his presence and he wouldn't be asked to call on the sombre pair. His mood was so poor that his Mum had asked him to stay away from his newest sister as he inadvertently made her throw things or cry as she took on his emotions and didn't know what to do with them.

Taking a deep breath and looking to his father for one last reassuring look, Bastien passed through the Floo from one house to the other. He held in his hands the paperwork that would officially assign him to the Medicinal Potions Making department of the Ministry of Magic. He needed to have several pages signed and initialled by his supervisor before he could begin his studies. That meant he needed to see Aunt Lily. She was feeding the girls breakfast when he walked into the kitchen. The girls got up and hugged their cousin and chatted with him until their mother sent them away to get dressed.

"Bastien, we've talked about this at length," she said quietly as the girls left. "I won't be into the office, you know that, right? I don't know when I'll be able to be back..."

"I know, Aunt Lily, but he's going to get better and then you're going to want to go back to your research. I'll just keep your experiments going and work on your research paths while you're not there."

"You know, with your marks, anyone would be happy to have your as their apprentice. There are others who are fine Potions Masters and researchers in the department," she again told him, hoping that he'd change his mind. Lily couldn't imagine ever being able to return to her job, her son required too much from her now.

"I know, but it's your work that I'm most interested in. I always have been, Aunt Lily. Now, how about if you sign these so that I can go and get organizing that really nice windowless dungeon space that they showed me last month in the bowels of the Ministry," Bastien teased and Lily smiled for the first time in what felt like ages. She took the parchment scroll and signed each of the pages and then called her owl over to take the forms to the Ministry.

"I would have delivered those myself," Bastien told her as they were flying out the window.

"I know, but I thought maybe if I saved you some time you'd be willing to go and see Harry and Ginny while you were here. She does react to you..." Lily suggested hopefully and the young man looked at his aunt and weighed her brightened look against his dread and relented. She hugged him tightly before he left the kitchen and heading up the stairs.

Cresting the stairs, Bastien saw his uncle in with Harry and Ginny; he was coaxing Ginny to eat her breakfast while the medi-witch was feeding Harry. His stomach lurched as he watched the kindly older woman charming the thinned porridge into Harry's mouth. His Mum had explained that Harry was having his weight kept up by potions rather than eating, but if they didn't feed him, his stomach would lose the ability to digest foods.

"Bastien," James said as he stood. "It's good to see you," he said with a warm hug. "Congratulations. I understand that you're going to be Lily's apprentice. Her last one went on to win the Montgomery Prize."

"Not doing this so I can win international potions prizes, Uncle James. I think the work she's doing is important. How's he doing?" Bastien asked, tipping his head toward Harry.

"About the same. I was glad that your Dad was able to take over at the office, we're headed to Scandinavia in another week, and it's good that I don't need to take care of the shops."

"He's glad to do it, although he might create some new products while you're away."

"His company, too," his uncle said wistfully. "Ginny, sweetie, look who's here. Why don't I go and get you some more fruit and you can chat with Bastien for a minute." With that James left the room, leaving Bastien alone with the pair and the medi-witch. The young man sat down in the chair that his uncle had vacated and started talking with the girl who he still had some strong feelings for.

"Hey Ginny, how are you doing today?"

"Okay," she answered, surprising him. His Mum had said that she hadn't spoken a word to either her or Aunt Lily all week.

"That's good," Bastien replied, hoping to get her to speak more, or at least until his uncle came back. "He looks good."

"Yeah," the word was no louder than a breath, "but he's lost, Bas." The young man reached over to take her hand in his, excited that she was communicating. As soon as his fingers brushed hers, however, she pulled them away as if she'd come in contact with something caustic. Bastien quickly held his hands up as if he were showing that he didn't want to hurt her and scooted back in his seat, putting some distance between them.

"Ginny, do you know where he is?" Bastien asked, hoping to get another response out of her, or at least keep her speaking until his uncle returned.

"He told me he's looking for them." Bastien felt his heart stop beating for a second.

"You talked to Harry? When? Since he's been out of hospital?" The boy was excited, but his enthusiasm must have spooked her, for she stopped talking and went back to staring vacantly at Harry. Before he could do anything the Medi-witch was up and calling down the stairs for Mr. Potter.

Bastien repeated everything that had transpired between him and Ginny for the Potters and then again for Healer Weston and Aunt Eva, but no matter what he attempted, he could not get Ginny to speak again. Nearly an hour later he finally left for his first day of work at the Ministry, tardy. He didn't think it was such an auspicious beginning.

For her part, Ginny hadn't realized she'd spoken aloud to Bastien. The conversations she'd been having with Harry were silent, well at least to everyone else; to Ginny his voice rang loud inside of her mind. The first time it happened, she was convinced that she was going crazy. It was only a few hours after she'd told Harry that she was there, that she cared, and that he'd responded so violently. She could hear his voice whisper to her: "Please stay with me, Gin."

Ginny had been sitting next to the bed, and had rested her head on the side of Harry's bed, her hand woven into his. When she heard the whisper, she popped up, looking at him. His eyes were still closed, his face still placid. She began speaking aloud out of habit.

"Harry, was that you?" She looked around the room wondering if there was someone else with them. There wasn't. His parents weren't even there at that moment, they were in the hall conversing with the Healers about what had happened earlier. Her question was met with silence, and she chocked the words she swore were from Harry up to her overactive and desperate mind.

The afternoon passed silently, Ginny both hoping and dreading that she'd hear Harry again. Just before she dozed off that night she heard him again. "Thank you for staying."

"Harry?" Ginny looked around, but saw no one else. Her gaze fell onto Harry's still, prone form and she felt confused again. "Please, Harry, if it's you, let me know? Are you real?" She was certain that her mind was going. Too many hours of sitting, waiting, hoping for some sign that Harry would be alright had caused her mind to play tricks on her.

"Gin, sweetheart, it's me. I'm not where I'm supposed to be..." with those words he began a conversation with her, even though nothing was spoken aloud. Harry was fully aware of what was going on around him, what was being said about his medical care. He knew when he was being fed or when the cleansing charms were being performed on his internal organs. He kept a near constant running monologue with Ginny about his state of being, even often whispering memories of their life together to her while she slept. She had to be in the room with him, or it seemed the connection was broken, and it took a long while – painfully long while in her eyes – for it to be re-established when she returned.

For her part Ginny kept herself open to the utterances and desires of Harry, revelling in the words that he expounded. She realized that she needed to be still and concentrate in order to hear him clearly, and while she never showed it, it was irritating for her when others would try to interact with her. It diverted her attentions from Harry and she was always fearful that she'd miss something important that he had to say. Part of her knew that the people around her were worried about her physical and emotional states, but she had no way of explaining that she was fine without explaining what was happening to Harry. She was terrified if she told them that she could hear Harry, she would be soon on the 'special ward' at St. Mungo's.

She'd moved from sitting next to him to sitting across the way from his face. She didn't know why, but it made it easier for her to look at his still features even when she was hearing his disembodied voice. She attempted to get him to explain to her where he was, but he couldn't tell her anything about the place. He described it as an empty void that was occasionally punctuated with overwhelmingly bright images of the two of them together.

She wasn't sure how he knew, but he could tell when different people were in the room. He enjoyed seeing his younger brother and sisters, but Ginny would need to remind him of their names. His mother's touch brought him boundless comfort and he was always pleased when his father was there. The first time that Anwen came to visit, Harry was frightened of what she'd think, and then was amazed that she willingly went into his memories again. He'd tried to locate her, but he saw no sign of her being anywhere near him. When Sirius came in that day Harry was again frightened, but rejoiced in his godfather's touch. Ginny could feel that Harry was sad, however. He wanted to wake up, but he couldn't figure out how. This saddened her deeply. She missed Harry and wanted him to wake up, put his arms around her and kiss her. She wanted to figure out how to put the past behind them and move on with their future.

She had found several gaps in Harry's memory, but chose not to point them out. He hadn't remembered attacking Anwen and only learned about it from the conversations around him. There were still things about his odd behaviour, and especially about his mental attack of his godmother that he didn't know and she was hesitant to bring up. Harry also had almost no memory of anything that had happened between them since returning from 1980. Since in her mind the last few months were difficult at best, she opted to keep these memories to herself as well. Whenever she suggested to Harry that she tell someone – his mother or father were her first choice – he vehemently disagreed with her, fearful that someone would try to take her away from him. Ginny was his only connection left, and he kept telling her that if it was somehow broken he knew he'd be lost wherever he was forever.

His request made her nervous, but Ginny complied. She wanted Harry home with her. She wanted him well. She couldn't afford to lose him either. If this was all she could have, for the time being it was enough and she wouldn't do anything to jeopardize it.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: This chapter was getting quite unruly and when it hit over 11,000 words I decided to split it in half, so there will now be 11 chapters to the story. I promise that the angst is much less in this chapter, kudos to all of you who were able to slog through it. Bigger kudos to my beta, Arnel, for being able to turn things around so quickly and for always making me smile. Thanks to all of you who are reading and have taken the time to review. Enjoy and see you next week. MNF**

**Chapter 9:**

**S'ouvrir**** (English Translation: Unlock)**

The day before the Potters were to leave for the rehabilitation hospital Potter Manor, _Fair Garden, _Grimmauld Place and the Black's home in Quimper, France were a flutter with activity. After much discussion and strategizing it was decided that the four youngest Potter children would be staying with the Blacks in Scotland. Due to the closeness of their wedding however, Draco and Elisabeth were moving back to France since the ceremony and reception would be held at the Quimper house. Clothes, toys and the like were moved over for the Potter kids while at the same time Draco was moving his things out of the large room that he'd shared with his brother since they'd moved into the house nearly a decade before. Bastien was moving into the traditional Black family home. He appreciated it's proximity to both The Ministry of Magic and St. Mungo's. He even was happy to have the family elf, Kreacher, as company.

It was a bittersweet day for the two boys. They were both moving into their own homes; although Draco would only live in the large house in France until after the wedding when he would then share the small house he'd purchased outside of Paris with his new wife. While they both knew that moving out of their parents' home signified their truly having reached adulthood, it didn't change that they were both slightly saddened that this would no longer be "their room". Once their things were moved out it would be converted for Chrissie and Sitara to share. Ron and Neville had both come to help with the packing and moving.

"Mum said that you guys should take your blankets. The girls want everything in here done in pinks," Bastien explained as he pointed to the Quidditch team blankets that had been lovingly knit for all of them by Grandma Louise as Louise Malfoy was known to them all before she'd passed.

"Good thing yours is for the Canons there Ron," Neville teased as he lifted his light blue one and handing off the bright orange to his friend. "You'd have to hide it otherwise. Doubt that a professional Quidditch player should have paraphernalia for a team that isn't their own."

"If Chudley hadn't signed me, Mum would have needed to redecorate my whole room. At least this way she can keep it as it, although she's brought some of the stuff down to the sitting room to show her team spirit," he explained. Ron was the new reserve Keeper for the Canons. Given how poorly their current Keeper could see, the papers were speculating that Ron would be moved up to the starting position rather quickly.

"When do you move into your flat again?" Draco asked.

"A week before your wedding. Love my parents, but living with them is...at least when I was young there were brothers and Ginny around. Now it's just them, my uncle, Bill and me and Bill is never there," Ron explained.

"Yeah, the problem wouldn't be that she won't let Hermione stay over, would it?" Bastien sniggered as he threw pairs of socks either into a crate or into the rubbish bin.

"Uh," Ron stammered turning a clashing shade of red from his hair, "that's not it the issue at all."

"Sure it isn't," Draco continued the playful banter. "Sent you any more howlers when you've missed curfew?"

"No, once was more than enough. Nothing kills your mood like your Mum yelling at you. Hermione sets an alarm in her kitchen so that I'm out of there before Mum can even consider sending another one. Seriously kills the romance when your girl is watching the clock." The group had a good laugh and continued with the packing until nearly everything was done and the room looked strangely devoid of any personality. Ron picked up the _Pride of Portree_ blanket that had been on the bunk Harry used and held it gingerly.

"Anyone headed over there?" He asked.

"Yeah," Draco responded. "I need to talk with Uncle James about when they're planning to return, just to make sure that they'll be at the wedding. I can take it over when I go."

"Do you think this hospital will help?" Neville asked, bringing up the subject that the boys had been avoiding for weeks. "I mean your Mum can't do anything," he said looking at Draco and Bas, "and my Mum says that Mrs. Potter is losing hope. Your sister looks like she hasn't slept in a year." His gaze drifting to Ron. "They're both falling apart and here we're supposed to be starting out on these new adventures of our lives and Harry and Ginny are just wasting away. What's going to happen if Harry never gets better?"

Bastien sat down on the end of what had been his bed and looked at the rest of the quartet. Seeing no answers in their eyes, he spoke. "We can't think that way. We're not even sure what happened to Harry, but if anyone can figure this out, it's our parents. I know that a team is working on it in my department at work, as well as somewhere in the Department of Mysteries. Someone is bound to find an answer, eventually. Harry's got to get better, we can't think any differently."

The boys all nodded and without being told to, shrunk and lifted the last of the crates, carrying them from the room that they'd spent so much of their childhoods in. There really wouldn't be any going back now. Regardless of what Bas had just said, the blind optimism of youth had succumbed to the harsher light of adulthood. None of them really felt as if their friend would ever be the same.

Later that afternoon Draco and Sirius returned from their errands. There were some papers that needed to be filed, and Draco had wanted to retrieve a few things from the family vault, most importantly were the wedding bands used by his Grandma Louise and her husband Abraxas. He'd promised her that he'd use the rings when he married. She had explained that they not only were charmed, but that she would personally be watching over him and his wife this way. Draco thought it was a good omen to have his beloved grandmother watching over his precious bride.

The house was unusually quiet when the pair came through the Floo. About the only time the house was quiet was in the middle of the night, there were just too many children for the home to be otherwise. Sirius looked at his eldest son with concern, and then heard the shuffled step of someone coming from the kitchen toward them. Sirius was surprised to see his mother-in-law Rhosyn Hodgson coming down the hall.

"Ma, what are you doing here?" he asked as he draped his long arms over her shoulders and down her back. The Hodgson matriarch was shorter than his wife, barely breaking the five foot mark. She wrapped her arms around his mid-section and gave him a squeeze before releasing him to hug her eldest grandchild.

"Came up for the next few weeks. Anwen looked awful when she visited last and with Sitara moving in with ya and the Potter kids staying here...Anwen needs some extra hands. Rose Evans will be here tomorrow. Draco sweetheart, aren't you eating? You're far too skinny. Look like your Da there," Rhosyn complained. Sirius chuckled as Anwen's mother was always attempting to feed him.

"Why is Lily's Mum coming?" Sirius asked confused about her statement about Rose.

"She wanted them to stay with her, but those four youngins are too much for her, especially now that Winchester has passed. We figured that if the grandkids were all going to be here this summer, then we would be as well. Anwen protested until I was here. Charlie came and got me and Apparated me up here. Wild ride, but better than the train," she explained in her lilting Welsh accent while she headed back toward the kitchen. Sirius had long ago learned Anwen's stubborn streak came from her mother.

"Where is Anwen now? And where are all the kids?" Sirius jogged the few steps to catch up to her, amazed at how quickly someone with such short legs could move when she needed to.

"Anwen's upstairs asleep. She got called over to the Potter's just after you left and now she's exhausted. I sent all the kids outside to play, telling them that if they let their Ma get forty winks I'd have biscuits for them later. Need to get them out of the oven," she explained.

"Grandma, are those your gingersnaps?" Draco asked excitedly as the tangy smell hit his nose as they entered the large kitchen.

"Of course my sweet boy, now go outside with your brothers and sisters and keep them in line and I'll be out in a while," she dismissed the young man and even though Sirius could tell that he wanted to complain at being sent outside like a child, he knew that his grandmother meant business so he didn't. Sirius watched him leave, working hard to quash his urge to laugh.

"I'm going up to check on Anwen," Sirius told Rhosyn.

"You do that," she said even as she busied herself with the dough. "That girl is going to kill herself all in the name of helping people. Maybe you can talk some sense into her."

"Ma if I could I would have years ago," he sighed as he nicked a biscuit and then dashed from the room even as the woman huffed at him. Before he went upstairs, he kicked his heavy boots off and removed the robes that he'd worn while out doing official family business this afternoon. He stood stoically, waiting for something. He was rewarded when he saw a light purple mist slither over toward his footwear. His boots began to march themselves over to the small alcove near the door and onto the boot mat that was nestled beneath the hooks holding their rain-slickers and lightweight cloaks, the mist then disappeared. Shaking his head at his wife's prodigious skill he took the stairs two at a time until he came to their room.

Anwen was curled up on her side of the bed, her hand resting on his pillow, looking similar to the position that she slept in when they were together. She'd once told him that she learned to sleep this way after her attack, knowing if she could feel his heart beating beneath her hand when she was startled awake in her sleep, she knew that she was alright and it was only a dream. She implicitly trusted him to protect her, always had and he vowed he would never give her reason to doubt that trust. He just wished he could do more for her now. Her inability to help Harry and Ginny was making her mental. It was rare that she was able to find a puzzle she couldn't work out. Her failure here was causing her so much pain. He knew that the physical action of doing so much Legilimency was excruciating as well, since she denied the pain far too vehemently.

He gently sat down on the bed, hoping to snuggle up with her and hold her as she slept, but when the mattress shifted she began to stir. As her eyes fluttered open she smiled at him, the special smile he knew was reserved alone for his eyes.

"Hi," she whispered, lifting her hand so that he could lie next to her. He didn't need to be asked twice. He lay down on the bed, one arm around her shoulders, the other to her waist. She knotted one hand into his hair, the other she laid on his chest, fingers splayed over his heart.

"Hello yourself," he whispered before kissing her. "So your mother's here for a visit?" Anwen rolled her eyes.

"She and Mama Evans want to help. Who am I to argue?" There was a resigned air to her voice

"Who indeed? I think it's a good thing, eleven kids is quite enough in one house for one summer."

"'Tis true," Anwen added sadly. "I wish it wasn't necessary."

"I know," Sirius commiserated as he gripped her tighter to him. "What did they need you for?" There wasn't need to identify further, the problems with Harry and its effect on Ginny were nearly always part of their conversations.

"Lily was convinced that she'd heard Ginny say something," Anwen explained. "I went to try to see if it was true. The problem is that I taught Ginny her Occlumency skills after the accident and unless she wants me to, there's no way I'm going to get into some of her deeper memories. Everything concerning Harry is packed very, very deeply and securely. I think Lil's just grasping at straws now." The sadness in Anwen's voice over the distress of her best friend was palpable. "So, did you and Draco get everything taken care of at the bank?"

"We did," Sirius explained. "He took the few bits of furniture that he wanted out of the Malfoy vault and then had it sealed again. His primary accounts are now all the Paris branch, and they're ready to have Elisabeth added after they're wed. The goblins reminded him that any time he wanted to go to the house they would be happy to accompany him, but he declined the invitation. It's not like he's ever going to live there. If it weren't that he had memories of Louise there, I'm sure he'd just sell it off," Sirius explained and Anwen nodded against him. "Oh, and there was a letter from Azkaban for him as well." Contact between Mrs. Malfoy and Draco was severed when she was imprisoned. As a sign of good faith between Sirius and his cousin, he'd allowed the prison to send correspondences to the bank and from there they'd be forwarded.

"Oh, poor Draco," Anwen sighed, knowing that her son was always pained when any mention of his birth parents occurred.

"She wants to see him. He isn't sure what to do. Part of him just wants to go, let her say her bit and then be done with her. He's also afraid that it will hurt your feelings if he does."

"My feelings? Why would I be hurt?"

"He knows that she hates you and he doesn't want to hear her disparage you. He's also worried that you'll think he misses her or that you weren't enough of a Mum for him or something. He couldn't really explain it, but that's the heart of it, I think. Lucius being dead makes things easier when it comes to me, I suppose."

"Sirius, yes Narcissa hates me, but it's not like I'm fond of her either. She gave me a gift, however. She gave birth to my eldest son, and nothing she ever says or does will take that away from me. He is so much more my child than hers, and if he needs to see her to close that chapter of his life, then so be it. Please, I know he won't ever discuss it with me, tell him how I feel."

"I will my love, I will," Sirius promised.

"So," Anwen said with a slight shove on her husband's chest to get up, "did he get the rings?"

"He did and they were examined and polished before we left the bank. Targnof said the enchantments were in place and strong, and that they'd work just as our rings do." Sirius lifted his wife's hand to kiss her ring-clad fourth finger when she decided to bolt up in bed in excitement with a squeal. Unfortunately, her shoulder came into contact with his nose with an uncomfortable thud.

"Oh, Sirius, sweetheart, I am so sorry," Anwen said, her hands going to his cheeks while both of his hands were now cradling his nose. "Let me see," she asked and he shifted his fingers slightly so that she could see into the cup of his hands. There was blood under his nose and it bent to the left in an odd way.

"Hold still," she told him, raising her hand over his nose and gently wiggling her fingers. The blood evaporated and Sirius could feel the cartilage slide back into place.

"That was..." Sirius mumbled, rubbing his nose, "what had you so excited that you broke my nose?"

"The rings, Sirius, the rings. Remember when we got married?"

"Yes, love," he patronized her, still rubbing his sore schnoz, "I was there."

"Yes, I know you were, let me finish what I was saying. After the magical wedding, when we were all at the house, we were talking with Harry and Ginny about their wedding?"

"Anwen, I was cursed the day of our magical wedding by my deranged cousin; there are gaps in my memory of that day. Anyway, if you say that we talked with Harry and Ginny about their wedding, then I'm sure that we did." Anwen shot him a frustrated look at his attitude and Sirius leaned over and kissed her. "Sorry, sweetheart, I'm listening."

"Ginny told me that they'd used Harry's grandparents' rings to be married. If they were Julia Potter's enchanted _Society _rings then we might have been going about this all wrong," she excitedly explained, sliding off the bed and dashing over to the chest that she kept at the foot of the bed.

"Anwen, what are you doing?"

"I'm looking for the photo album we keep in here, the one with the pictures of Harry and Ginny or Harrison and Regina as they're labelled. Had to hide it from the kids once they were old enough to figure out that the resemblance of our friends to their friends was far too great," she explained, running her hand over the lock and watching it slide open. "I need to see if we have a picture to take over there and let James confirm what I think is going on here."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he confessed, "I'm still trying to get over your breaking of my nose a few minutes ago."

"Oh, well I put it right back in place," she mumbled, her head buried inside the trunk. "Ah, ha, I do have one," she excitedly yelled, removing the yellowed picture from the album. "Come on, we need to go to Potter Manor."

"Uh, okay," Sirius said as he slid from the bed, still dizzy from having his nose broken and reset in less than a minute. Even with her bad leg, Anwen could move fast when she wanted to, and she had Disapparated herself out of their bedroom and to the kitchen before Sirius knew what was going on. Anwen was telling her Ma that they were headed to Potter Manor and she wasn't sure when they'd be back. Mrs. Hodgson took it in stride, saying she'd make sure the kids were all fed and put to bed. Their new au pair, Petronella, was already moved in and making herself at home with the children. Between the two of them, they'd get the children fed and to bed. Draco told his Mum he'd stay to help as well. Anwen thanked them and hurried to the Floo.

James Potter was in his office at Potter Manor, finalizing some payments that were due while they were scheduled to be away. Between Bill Weasley and Sirius, he knew that the business expenses would be handled, but these were personal matters. He looked up from his desk, surprised when Anwen and Sirius came through the Floo, since he wasn't expecting to see them again until morning when they dropped the children off.

"Anwen, Sirius, what are you doing here?" he asked as he left his office and walked over to them. He could see that Anwen was positively buzzing with excitement. He didn't think that he'd seen her quite this keyed up in many years. She suddenly resembled his eleven year old friend more than his thirty-five year old cousin.

"James, look at this picture," she said, thrusting it into his hands.

"Where is this from? When is this from?" He muttered, staring at the yellowed photograph.

"It's from a photo album that I keep in our bedroom. It's of our magic wedding, look at Harry's hand. Do you recognize his wedding ring?" Anwen was getting impatient. Sirius came up and wrapped his arm around her waist, standing behind her, still unsure of where she was going with whatever idea was going through her head.

"Wait, that looks like..." James mumbled before he strode across the hall and into his office. He reached his desk and opened the top drawer, removing a magnifying glass from inside and looking in carefully at the picture.

"Anwen, I do, the ring Harry's wearing, it was my father's. Those are the enchanted wedding rings my parents wore. I didn't realize they'd used them. How would he have gotten them?"

"I don't know, and the only person who might know isn't able to speak right now. What I need to see is if I can get Ginny to tell me about their wedding. If they were married in a magical ceremony, with these enchanted rings...oh, we could have made things just so much worse." Anwen was already heading out the of the room and toward the stairs, running into Lily as she was coming down.

"Anwen, Sirius what are you doing here? Is there something wrong?"

"No Lil, everything might actually be right," Anwen said as she started up the stairs as quickly as she could, which wasn't all that fast since she could only bend one leg and then make the other catch up.

"Can someone explain to me what's going on?" Lily asked confused.

"All I know is I got home from the bank with Draco after he picked up the wedding rings for he and Elisabeth and Anwen got excited about something. She broke my nose, dug around for a picture and then came here," Sirius explained.

"She broke your nose?" James asked, thoroughly confused.

"I fixed it right away," Anwen threw back, nearly to the top of the stairs. Sirius nodded and shrugged at the same time, nearly as bewildered by her behaviour as the others were.

"I think she's figured something out about Harry and Ginny, but she hasn't told me what," he confessed and Lily's face broke out into joy at those words.

"I knew that she could do it," Lily nearly cheered, her faith and hope seemingly restored.

The adults entered the room, Harry still prone in the bed, the medi-witch confused as to why they were all there and Ginny still sitting nearly comatose in her chair. Anwen got between Harry and Ginny and knelt down so that her eyes were only inches from Ginny's.

"Ginny, I need you to concentrate on my voice and look at me," Anwen demanded. "I need you to tell me about when you married Harry. I need you to find those memories and tell me about that day. I can't bring him back if you don't tell me."

"Married?" The medi-witch asked. "I didn't know they were married." Before anyone said any more, James took his wand out and charmed the memory right out of the witch, then suggesting that she head downstairs for some tea. Thankfully she followed his suggestion before Anwen said any more.

"Ginny, please, I know you're in there, and I know that you want Harry back, please help me do that."

In her mind Ginny could hear Anwen speaking to her, but she could also hear Harry.

"Harry, I think I should help her?" Ginny thought at Harry.

"What if she's just trying to make me go away?" He responded.

"She wants to know about our wedding, that doesn't sound like going away, Harry. Our wedding was from the first life, please, I want you back." Anwen's voice was getting stronger, clearer. She no longer sounded as if she was speaking to Ginny through a tube of some sort. Ginny took her pleadings to heart.

"Don't let her take me away, Gin," Harry's voice pleaded quietly but insistently.

"I won't, Harry, I promise."

Anwen took Ginny's hands in hers. "Please, Ginny honey, find any memory that you have of when you married Harry. Give me a clue, just a little one, please." The young woman couldn't stand that her friend was begging and relented as best as she could. Ginny imagined that she was opening a curtain, like what happened before a show. She'd been concentrating so hard on keeping things secret that being able to share it, to bring down her shields was a relief. Ginevra Molly Weasley relaxed for the first time in what felt like forever and let her friend who felt more like a sister peer into her mind.

For Anwen, the Burrow suddenly appeared in her mind's eye. She knew that this was Ginny's mind, she'd been in it before and had smiled at the way the girl had organized her thoughts. From experience, she knew that the memories of Harry were located what would be Ginny's bedroom. Anwen reached out, opened the door to the house and let herself in and began to climb the ramshackle staircase to the landing outside of Ginny's bedroom.

Anwen had seen the girl's real life room enough times to recognize the things in it, and was surprised to find a second trunk tucked along the side of the bedroom. This wasn't something that had a correlation in the real world. It was hard to open, as if the lock was somehow rusted or it had been sealed shut. Instinctively knowing that she'd need more strength than she had on her own, she reached out to where her husband had last been. Sirius was all the strength that Anwen would ever need.

"What's she doing?" Lily asked, sounding anxious and impatient.

"We don't know, but she's doing the best she can, Lil. Be patient and let her do what she needs to," James comforted even as Sirius took his wife's hand and wove his fingers together with hers. He brought his head down to hers and let his lips caress her crown.

Inside Ginny's mind, Anwen tugged again at the lock on the trunk, but it was still refusing to budge. She was convinced this was where the key lie.

"Ginny, sweetheart, you've got to help me get in," Anwen pleaded. "Open the trunk for me, honey. I'm not going to hurt you."

Ginny was still concerned that when Anwen discovered her secret she was going to be upset, or worse, she would do something to make Harry go away, but she overcame her hesitations and concentrated on the trunk opening. Ginny knew what was inside, knew that she'd be in at least some trouble for holding onto these memories the way she did, but she couldn't bring herself to destroy them or to let them slip through her fingers. They meant too much to her.

The top on the chest finally popped open, and Anwen was able to lift it, only slightly surprised that Ginny had kept her memories of her first life and Harry safe. Some were recognizable to Anwen through her trips into Harry's fractured psyche, others were not. It didn't take her long to find the memories of their wedding for they were particularly cherished by Ginny and had been carefully placed in a floral-covered album. It was her wedding book.

Anwen skimmed through Harry's arrival at the Burrow. He looked horrid and while it was one thing to know that someone had spent months on the run, it was entirely another to see the effects of living as such. Ginny's simultaneous relief and irritation were overwhelming and they caused Anwen to shift back on her heels, losing her balance and ending up on her bum. Anwen didn't open her eyes, nor did she break the concentration she had through the Legilimency.

"Sweetheart, are you okay?" Sirius whispered, but the lack of response from Anwen let him know that whatever discomfort she was in wasn't important to her.

Anwen watched Harry's tearful proposal and Ginny's similarly wet response. He explained that the rings were given to him by Sirius who had been given them by his Dad the day of his baptism. Harry had been keeping them in his trunk for over two years, Sirius telling him that he'd one day give them to Ginny, apparently before Harry even recognized his feelings. Anwen got a wide smile that her husband was able to see love in others, even when he'd been so dense about it in his own life.

She flipped through some moments of intimacy between the couple. They didn't need Anwen watching them celebrate their engagement. She stopped her rapid skimming when she came to a view of Minerva talking about _The Society_ and the roles the rings played for the women. Anwen's hunch was right, the rings were indeed enchanted; the exact nature of the enchantments, however, wasn't discussed.

Anwen was so gleeful in her realization that she failed to truly notice the window and the view outside of Ginny's room. There was something outside the Burrow that did not belong there.

The brown-haired witch pulled herself from Ginny's mind and opened her eyes with a large smile before she leaned in and kissed the girl's forehead. "Excellent work, Ginny, you did exactly what I needed. If I'm right, I think I know how to save you and Harry."

"What? You can..." Lily stammered. "What did you see? What does she know?"

"Lily, give the woman some space," James attempted to calm his wife, but he wanted to know as badly as she did what his cousin had found.

"First, thankfully Ginny didn't let the memories fade of their first life. I'm not sure how she did it, but she protected them quite well," Anwen explained as she shifted her legs around so that she could get herself off the floor. Seeing what she was doing, Sirius helped her up. "Harry and Ginny were indeed married with Julia and Andrew's enchanted rings. Minerva was there and confirmed that they are enchanted, but the only enchantment that she mentioned was the inability of the wearer to betray the other. We need to find out exactly what enchantments are upon them and what the consequences are. She also performed the ceremony, using the _Rite of Magical Binding_ that we were both married with. How none of us thought to ask about this before we sent them back..." Anwen trailed off, the last sentence conveying her irritation over this lapse.

"Why would that have mattered?" Lily asked, "Dumbledore said that there was reason to assume that they would be married when they arrived here."

"Legally he was right," James replied, speaking as if a light went off and could put part of this puzzle together. "We didn't take into account the magic, however. How could we have all been so stupid?"

"What are you talking about?" Sirius asked. "What is there other than being legally or not legally married?"

"Magical marriage passes through time and space, unlike a legal one. It was done as a protection, since we can travel through time. Once they were married magically, they were married forever. That's why you don't do a magical wedding unless you're certain you want to spend forever with someone. Breaking one is far more difficult than just getting a divorce," James went on to explain, but he could see the confused look on his wife's face.

"So, they've really been married, all this time?" She asked.

"Yes, and unfortunately the actions that our time line Harry took have been forcing the enchantments to kick in," James explained, irritated and disgusted. "We need to find out what they were exactly. The rings are at Gringotts. The goblins should be able to read them and tell me what's been placed upon them."

"I also think we need to speak with Mimi," Anwen piped up, "she's the only one of the old guard still around that can tell us about the ceremony that she might have done on them. I mean, we were married with the rite, but honestly, I don't remember much except how handsome Sirius was. Knowing everything will give us a better chance of being able to undo whatever mess they're in."

"Why don't you take care of going to Hogwarts and seeing if she can come down," James suggested, "I'll go to the bank and retrieve the rings and find out about the enchantments. We'll meet back here in say an hour and a half?"

"We'll see if Remus and Eva can come back with us as well. We're going to need his insight to figure out how to rectify this," Sirius added and they all nodded.

"What about Albus?" Lily asked and Anwen looked away. It was their child, their choice, but Anwen was against involving him.

James caught the pained look on her face before she masked it. "Let's wait and see if we need it." He left the room with Sirius and Anwen, leaving Lily behind with Harry and Ginny. She hugged her son, feeling certain that they were close to bringing him home and then went and hugged her son's wife.

"Thank you, for whatever it is that you've been doing," she whispered in the girl's ear, "thank you for keeping him alive and safe." Hope was alive and growing in Lily's chest, something that she hadn't felt in so long. She nearly missed the corners of the girls mouth curl up into the faintest of smiles.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Notes: Here it is, the second to last chapter. There are answers in this chapter, there are still a few more questions as well. I hope that you enjoy what they finally figure out. Deep thanks to my dear beta, Arnel, who worked her butt off on this one, since I pulled it apart, rewrote it and then pulled it apart again. She has the patience of a saint. Also, for those who have been following my cancer battle, got a very good report today, the scan showed very little growth and I didn't need another dose of oral radiation and the week in isolation! Thanks to all of you for reading and reviewing, MNF**

**Chapter 10:**

**Pont (English translation: Bridge)**

Time felt like it was crawling as Lily waited at Potter Manor for the others to return. Shortly after everyone left her, she got on the telephone and called her mother, asking her to come and spend the night with her children. She wasn't sure if they'd be leaving to go anywhere, but the last thing that she wanted to worry about was if her younger four were fed and safe.

Her mother had sold the family home in England and moved into a small house in Portree after her father's death a little over a year ago. She knew her mother's actions had enraged her sister, Petunia, but the reality was that their mother wasn't ever invited to the Dursley home. If Rose Evans saw Petunia, Vernon and Dudley it was because Rose invited them to her home or some event or a dinner out. James or Lily were more than willing to Apparate her anywhere that she wanted to go if would facilitate her living closer to them. She had chuckled when her mother told her that she and Rhosyn Hodgson were also staying at Fair Garden this summer while her children were there. She couldn't help but think that her mother was treating it as some sort of summer camp and the grandmothers were going to act as counselors.

It took about twenty minutes for Rose to drive from her small cottage to the Manor house, and never was Lily so happy as when she saw her Mum driving up the drive. She flung the door open and greeted her mother with excitement.

"The look on your face says that something good has happened?" Rose asked her daughter as she got out of her car and then reached into the backseat for her small satchel.

"We think so," Lily told her, "Anwen thinks that she's figured something out."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me. The girl is a pretty smart one. Harry's illness has been a rather tricky one," Rose said, waiting for more information. Neither her daughter nor son in law had been very forthcoming about the nature of Harry's illness. Lily looked away from her Mum, and Rose wasn't sure that she was going to get more information out of her.

"Mum, I want to tell you everything, but it's very complicated and the magics involved make it more so," Lily told her.

"I hope that one day you'll try to explain, but if that isn't today then it's fine," Rose said in resignation. She'd learned when James was the Assistant Minister of Magic that there were magical things that couldn't be discussed with Muggles. "So, where are my little angels?"

"The girls are all upstairs in Lilyan's room playing with dolls. I don't know how Brynne and Eva-Claire convinced her, but that's where they are. Evan is out in the yard on his broom. I've put a roast into the oven for supper, if we're not here you're just going to need to pull it out."

"Lily sweetheart, I am more than capable of feeding my grandchildren," Rose joked and Lily nodded, realizing that she was strung tighter than a violin string. "I want to see Harry," she said as she moved toward the door. "I knitted him a new pair of socks. Maybe he'll like them so much that he'll thank me."

"Maybe Mum," Lily said genuinely touched by her mother's actions. "He always is excited when he gets a new pair from you."

They entered the house and Rose climbed the stairs to see her eldest grandchild while Lily went back into James' office to wait for their friends. As she sat down on the leather-covered loveseat she noticed that James had a book she didn't recognize open on the stand next to his lounger. The stand allowed him to review a book or parchment, work with his wand and write notes if need be. He used to levitate the books, but unfortunately with his aging eyes, the book didn't always stay in the spot where he could read it easily, hence the use of the stand. He did much of his initial product development here, away from prying eyes.

The book appeared very, very old, the pages warped and yellowed with age. It was a huge book as well, at least eighteen inches in length and a foot wide and four or five inches thick. Lily got up to look at the tome, flipping it over to review the title. The Troubles with Time by Abernathy Augustus, III. Lily was surprised at this, not knowing that her husband had been researching time travel magic. For the life of her she couldn't figure out why her husband would want to do any more time magic – it's what had gotten them into this situation in the first place. She looked over to his desk and saw two more equally old books. She touched the book and felt it send a mild shock through her system. Pulling her hand away and uttering a swear word quietly, she once again cursed the stupidity of some witches and wizards regarding blood status. It was a damned enchanted book that only certain bloodlines could touch. Before she could investigate further, sounds from the Floo in the hall alerted her that someone had returned.

James had returned home, a small velvet satchel in his hands. "They were right where I thought they were," he explained as he kissed her forhead. "Ednegh had left for the day, so I asked for the goblin that handles Anwen and Sirius' accounts. Targnof found it amusing that he was assessing the second set of enchanted rings today."

"And they are indeed enchanted? A marriage made with these rings would have been a magical one?"

"Completely and irrevocably," he answered quietly, wondering what other revelations were awaiting them today. Lily watched her husband's face as he flitted through too many emotions to name.

"Jamie, sweetheart, why are you researching time travel?" Lily asked, the books from his office weighing on her.

"One night last week I couldn't sleep, so I was in the den watching television. Star Trek was on and the episode was about the crew having to re-live the same day over and over, it always ended with the ship being blown apart, then the crew would be forced to start the process over. It wasn't until they did something different that they were finally able to break free from the repetition."

"Was it the one from when we were kids?" Lily asked and James looked at her strangely.

"There was one from when we were kids? Huh," he said sounding surprised. He had no idea, but now that he thought about it, the name made much more sense. "No, this is the one that went off the air a few years ago," he explained.

"Ah, the one with the handsome Englishman," Lily got a glint in her eye and James cocked his eyebrow at her. "Oh, please, I can look, but I'd never touch, Jamie. You are the only Englishman for me."

"But Lil, I'm a Scot," he reminded her.

"Okay, fine, I promise that should I ever come across the actor, I will not touch. Anyway, what's up with the time travel books?"

"Okay, the Enterprise was stuck in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over until they did something different to get themselves out of it. It started me thinking that unfortunately it might be the only way to fix what's going on with Harry is to go back into time and make some sort of change. I started researching time travel the next morning, and it was confirmed that often mistakes with time travel will often require more time travel to correct them. That's actually Augustus' third law of time travel. The first two are don't do it and if you do play with time, don't make changes you're not prepared for the consequences of. We all sort of made a bloody mess of the first two," he added with sadness. Lily nodded in agreement.

"I've read his books twice through, as well as getting the Greek books that Harry had told us he found in the first timeline, when he came back, so that I could reference the spell he used. By the way, we're burying that book so deep in the Black family vault when we're done that no one will ever find it. The spell Harry used, I don't know how he pulled it off without getting himself and Ginny killed. I'd never attempt something like that, and I'm a charms and spellcraft expert. Those issues don't even take into account the havoc he sowed to the timeline. We're lucky we're not in a bigger mess."

"So, you really think it might be necessary?"

"I do, and Anwen and Remus agree with me," James said as he steeled himself for his wife's response when he saw the pain flash across her eyes.

"Why didn't you talk with me about any of this? Why did you go to them?" Lily was obviously hurt by his lack of confidence to confide in her.

"I always planned to, love, but you've been so wrapped up in Harry and Ginny's conditions, I didn't want to add to your stress," he explained while wrapping his arms around her. Lily relaxed into his hold, wrapping her arms around him. "Please forgive me?"

"You know I do," she answered. "Mum's upstairs," Lily explained as she extracted herself from her husband's embrace. "I thought it might be good to have someone here in case we had to leave and go elsewhere. I would hate to have to worry about the younger kids while we're trying to help Harry and Ginny."

"I think that's wise." The couple was headed back into James' office when they heard the Floo again. This time a small parade was coming through. First was Sirius, who held his hand out to help Minerva McGonagall and then his wife through. She was followed by Eva Lupin and finally Remus.

"I can't believe that it might come down to their marriage from that first life," Eva said, "how could you not find out if it was magical or not? Heck both sets of you were married magically!" Her tone wasn't appreciated by her best friends in the least. It was Lily who spoke up first.

"Be careful sitting on that high of a horse, Eva, you wouldn't want to fall off," she quipped coldly. Eva held her hands up in front of her.

"I'm sorry. That didn't come out the way that I wanted it to," she backpedaled. "It just seems like such a basic thing to have checked, and yet..."

"Mrs. Lupin," Minerva spoke up in her recognizable stern, Headmistress voice, "in our defense, we were all taking orders from Albus at the time. We all moved forward under his directions. I had assumed that he had spoken with Harry about it. It would seem that was an incorrect assumption on my part."

"Let us put past assumptions aside and figure out how we need to proceed," James suggested. "Why don't we go into the sitting room and everyone can tell what they know and then we can create a plan of attack together. Is there someone with your children?" He asked Remus and Eva.

"They're good," Remus spoke up in response, "Hermione Granger was over when Sirius showed up and volunteered to sit with the children. She's applied for an internship in the Department of Mysteries, in the Knowledge room. She needs to take a basic Defensive Magic examination and time trial Defensive skill test and I was helping her prepare. She didn't need the help, but her nerves and ego required some support. The twins like her as well, which means the house might still be standing when we arrive back there. She's been quite worried about Harry since he left school, seeing as she's dating one of his best friends."

"Well, that's good," Anwen chirped up as the group moved into the sitting room. "It would appear that all of our children are in capable hands."

"Anwen, were you able to explain what you saw when you were in Ginny's memories?" James enquired.

"I told Minerva some of what I'd seen, but Sirius had gone down to the Lupin's house and I didn't see them until they Flooed into Hogwarts. We came right here once we were all together."

"Let's start there then," he suggested and Anwen nodded.

"Somehow Ginny had managed to save her memories, which was impressive since she wasn't supposed to be able to do that. Everything was neat and orderly and locked quite tightly. I only got in because she let me get in. Harry—old time Harry-had explained to her that he'd been given the rings by Sirius while he was on Christmas holiday in his fifth year. James, you had given them to Sirius on the day of Harry's baptism, fearful that you and Lils wouldn't be alive when he needed them. In that life Sirius was killed only six months later. Apparently, Harry carried them in his trunk, in some compartment that you'd charmed for him," Anwen said looking at Remus.

"The ceremony was performed by you," her gaze shifted to Minerva, "after you'd explained the Society to them. From the memory I watched, Molly had told Ginny nothing and was nearly hostile to the idea of the organization. You'd explained to them that your numbers had been severely depleted during the first war. The strange thing was that Remus and his wife there had used a charmed set of rings, ones that had belonged to your wife's grandmother."

"Why are you talking about me that way?" Eva asked, Anwen hesitated.

"Because, he wasn't married to you."

"Who was I married to there?" Remus asked and Anwen and Sirius looked at each other.

"Er, you were married to my cousin, Dora Tonks," Sirius explained. Remus looked perplexed and bemused. "Ginny had mentioned it when she first woke up. She was surprised to find you with Eva in this life. There must be a story there, since Andromeda had been banished from the family, or at least according to my Dad. Perhaps Auntie Druella was softer on her than we'd expected." He was musing aloud, beginning to think that he'd never understand his family.

"That is unexpected," Remus finally muttered. "Okay, so I was married with these enchanted rings. Go on."

"You warned Harry and Ginny that your emotions are heightened by the wearing of them, including making you more...amorous," Anwen sniggered. "The young pair was quite excited about that part."

"I bet they were," James laughed and they all joined in.

"Mr. Potter," Minerva scolded him.

"Moving ahead," Anwen continued, "you married them with a Rite that I didn't quite recognize. It was similar to our magical ceremony but much closer to the one that James and Lily had."

"That would make sense, Anwen. You and Sirius were married with the full Circle together, blessings given from most of the Elder points. James and Lily were only blessed by Julia. The solo rite is an abbreviated form of the longer ceremony that was used with you. I never did understand why you weren't married with the full rite," she said to James.

"I didn't want it," he told her. "With her parents being Muggles, I didn't want them to think that there our marriage wasn't something that they couldn't be a part of. Having Mum do the blessing inside the house after the legal ceremony allowed her parents to be part of it."

"Ah, how very thoughtful of you," Minerva complimented him.

"So exactly what enchantments were on the rings?" Remus asked. "Also, does the ceremony carry any enchantments?"

"Yes, it does. The ceremony allows for the sharing of magics, the creation of a deeper emotional connection, and the inability to raise your wand in anger and direct a spell against your spouse."

"That last one, it's something that Sirius should be ever so thankful for," Anwen teased.

"I'm not that bad," Sirius whined back.

"No, but there have been days you should thank your lucky stars that I couldn't curse you."

"I am, love, I am," he answered, leaning over to kiss her gently, and everyone else started to laugh at the pair.

"What about the rings?" Remus asked, trying to bring the discussion back to the pressing matter.

"The enchantments on the rings are two-fold," Minerva answered. "First, they keep the gifter from betraying the wearer. There are some limitations on this, forcefully being taken by another, rape, does not cause the magic to activate. Also, if you say something not to hurt or anger but instead to protect the wearer – say lying about the depth of your emotions, the enchantments won't kick in."

"Why would it be written that way?" Eva asked and it was Anwen who spoke up.

"Death Eaters often made sport of attacking families, raping the women and causing the husbands to watch. However, if they could be lead to believe that there were no emotional attachments between spouses, that the marriage was arranged and devoid of deep connection, it removed some of value for the Death Eaters. It's cold and despicable to think about, but we all know that those were very dark times for us all. Sometimes you did what you had to do. That particular enchantment was important for the husbands who were working on the inside of Voldemort's circle of friends, while their wives were part of the resistance. They were able to say things in meetings that kept their wives safe and deflected attention."

There was universal head shaking in the room, disgusted by the depravity of the men that Voldemort had attracted. Lily broke them all away from their disturbing thoughts with a question.

"So, if that was the first enchantment, there must have been others?"

"Yes," Minerva confirmed. "There is the amorousness, but it goes even deeper than that. The rite makes couples closer, their bond having grown deeper, but it can, in some cases, cause couples to build a unique connection, a bridge if you will, where they can cross to their mate for a moment. I have never actually heard of this happening, however."

"Oh, it happens," Sirius said with a sly smile and Anwen looked at him with her eyes wide open and a blush that crept up from her neck to her cheeks.

"Definitely, but only at, err, select moments," James added, eliciting a similar response from Lily.

"Really?" Minerva said surprised. "And what moment would that be, Mr. Potter." She asked with such earnestness that it had the two men convinced that she honestly didn't know. Neither of them wanted to speak, so they looked away from everyone and chose that moment to simultaneously inspect the cracks of the plaster on the ceiling. Anwen exhaled in a disgusted way at their childish behavior.

"Mimi, when we're intimate and nearing the moment of...release," Anwen said, trying to put this as delicately as possible. "It is not uncommon for Sirius and me to see and feel things from each others perspective."

"Oh," was all that the Headmistress said, causing the group to have a genuine laugh. "Well then, that's..." and with that she began fussing with her hair, her physical tell that she was uncomfortable.

"I didn't know it happened for you, too. Why did you ever talk to me about it?" Lily asked and Anwen looked at her incredulously.

"And how exactly was I supposed to bring that up? That's not a dinner party conversation that I want to be part of. 'Lil, sweetie, have you ever passed into James body just as you're about to..." with that she waved her arms in an explosion type movement. "It took every last ounce of courage I had to ask Iris Lovegood about it when she was at my grandmother's house helping me brew my healing potions. Talking to you, knowing it was James...no, thank you." The room erupted in laughter and it helped with the tension of what they were working on. Anwen stopped and furrowed her brow. "I wonder?" she muttered.

"What, love?" Sirius asked quietly, not wanting to draw attention to her concern. She shook her head at him, subtly letting him know whatever she was contemplating wasn't fully formed yet. Sirius had learned long ago that this was how Anwen worked.

"Okay, so we know that there was an enchanted marriage, and it would seem that the key enchantment here is the betrayal one. Targnof told me that the curse is supposed to happen immediately, physical and mental pain are inflicted. I don't understand why it was so slow?" James went on.

"May I hypothesize?" Remus asked.

"You're better at it than most of us," James urged him on.

"Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the betrayal occurred before the date they were actually married in the original timeline. I'm thinking that because of this, they only had to deal with the time and space aspect of a magical marriage, rather than an actual betrayal of the marriage."

"I believe you're right, Professor Lupin. If I could give you house points, I would," Minerva teased and supported him.

"What I don't understand," Lily said, "why do the enchantments last through time?"

"For the same reason as the other enchantments," Anwen piped up. "It wasn't all that long ago that arranged marriages were given up, there are still families that make them. Often times large amounts of money, land, estates, companies changed hands at marriages. A girl with a large dowry was highly sought after because she could ensure her husband's family financial stability. Because wizards can travel through time with relative ease, there's nothing stopping a thwarted suitor from going forward or back in time to take what he wanted. There were spells that fathers could put on their daughters to protect them during their engagement period. Then, once the marriage had taken place, then it couldn't be broken, regardless of what someone else might try to do. It inhibited those with all but murderous intent."

"How did we make it out of all that unscathed?" Lily asked and both Sirius and Remus wrapped an arm around their respective wives, knowing that neither would consider themselves unscathed by the Great War. The death of Eva's father and Anwen's injuries still haunted them.

"Because Harry is good and upright man and did what few witches and wizards would ever have thought about, much less attempted," Minerva added with sadness. There was a minute of contemplation, the realization that many of them owed their lives to the young man whom they were now trying to help wove its way through the room like the wind-whipped tendrils of petals that fall from the trees when their spring bloom is coming to an end. Beautiful to look at, but also demarcating a significant change for the tree. "Well, we now have a reason young Harry is in the state he is in, now the more difficult problem; what are we going to do to fix it?"

"Remus, Anwen and I have been discussing that," James said, "and the only viable plan that we came up with was someone going back in time and telling us that we need to let them keep the memories of their past life. Obviously there will be gaps in what they know, so we'll have to get them up to speed on their current lives, but a crash course on their siblings and cousins seems easier than going through this again."

"But, won't we risk contaminating the timeline even further?" Sirius asked.

"Perhaps, but if we send one of us back for only a very short amount of time to speak with their doppelganger, then the contamination should be limited. It's a small switch that we're talking about here," Anwen said.

"Well, that will fix the problem with Harry's one set of memories attacking the other," Eva said, "but it won't stop the enchantments on the rings from activating. Harry is liable to have 'sewn his wild oats' anyway."

"So, we tell whoever it is that we're talking to that Harry shouldn't date in his seventh year," Sirius suggested and Anwen cocked her eyebrow at him.

"Really, you think that it's possible to keep a seventeen-year-old boy from dating?"

"If it's for his own good..."

"Mr. Black," Minerva spoke up, "I seem to remember a young man who was caught in many a broom closet his seventh year, and few of the young women who went with you were repeat offenders. Can you think of ANYTHING that could have been said to you that would have stopped that behavior?" Sirius reluctantly shook his head.

"What about Ginny's back?" Lily piped up. "If we're going to change things, can't we do something to just stop the accident? If there isn't an accident, then they won't break up, then he won't behave so brazenly and the rite shouldn't be activated." Several people took in deep breaths, contemplating how this could occur.

"Sure, we tell whomever to keep Harry off the bike that day."

"But he went without any adults knowing, that was the problem."

"Have him be grounded."

Anwen had her eyes closed, concentrating on something. She started shaking her head, not knowing who was speaking, but realizing that all of the ideas were far too specific, and there was a chance that it would make things worse.

"Love, what's the matter?" Sirius finally asked her.

"You do realize that even if we stop the accident, it might not mean that Ginny won't be injured, right?"

Everyone was stunned by her statement. "Why do you say that?" Remus asked.

"Because, if her back injury is supposed to happen, it will happen. Or, at least according to one camp on the whole pre-destination/free-will debate believes that." The friends all looked confused, the only one who didn't was Minerva, and she had a sly smile on her face.

"Ah, I should have predicted that you would know, my dear. Would you like to explain it, or shall I?" She asked.

"I can," Anwen returned the smile. "This has been something that's been debated since humans have been thinking, and the debates aren't limited to wizarding kind. You ever want a fun dinner party, invite a Presbyterian and a Methodist to dinner and let them go at it over this." Anwen and Minerva tittered, slightly, at her own inference, no one else did.

"Fine," Anwen huffed at their lack of getting her joke. "There are three rather well formed camps on this idea. The first is that everything that happens in life is free will. Whatever happens to you in the course of a day, a month, your lifetime is caused by your own free will or the free will of others, the exception being things like the weather that you can't control, but you do have free will on how you react to it. The second camp is the idea that things in life are preordained or predestined. In this case, there are certain events that are written into the fabric of life – the same way your eye color or your height are – and while you might be able to stop one particular way for an event happening, you can't stop it from becoming reality all together. If you're to murder someone, you will murder. The third camp is an amalgam of the two, that there are some things which can be controlled and some which cannot."

"Where do you fall?" Remus asked her.

"I think that it's a combination of the two," she explained. "My Ma was a Methodist, my Da was an Anglican. I think both their ideas rubbed off on me. This isn't something that only Christianity has dealt with. Faith systems all over the world discuss these issues, and there are volumes written on it from a secular point of view, wizard and Muggle."

"So you think that Ginny's back is something that was predestined?" Eva inquired.

"That I'm not so sure about," Anwen confessed. "The thing is, she was fine when she came back in time. If it was inevitable that she'd break her back at that stage in her life, she wouldn't have been walking when she was our friend. But that wasn't the case, hence, I don't think that it was predestined."

"So, we could reverse it?" Lily asked in hopeful tones.

"Theoretically. However, being specific about a date and time of the accident doesn't mean we will stop it. Plus, it doesn't even bring up the issue of time line contamination. No, if we're going to make stopping the accident part of our trip back, then it needs to be much simpler. One small action that won't raise any eyebrows as to why we're asking for it," Anwen answered.

"Tell me not to buy the bikes. No bike, no accident," Sirius suggested.

"No, it would stop the accident, but you love the time you've spent working on them with the boys. Plus, I don't think I could keep you from a '67 Triumph Bonneville if I wanted to," she gently rebuked him.

"I suppose your right," he sighed, knowing his wife knew him better than he did some days. There was quiet contemplation about the room when James finally spoke.

"What if you were told to lock the garage better?" he suggested.

"It would keep Harry off the bikes, probably would stop Draco's accident when he broke his wrist when he was nine as well," Sirius hypothesized.

"It's never a bad thing to keep the garage better locked, and if Sirius pressed for more information, the answer could be to keep the kids safe. Even if he's told this in 1980, it won't come as a surprise that at some point in the future we'd have children. We talked about it the day we married, both agreeing that if we were alive in a couple of years, we wanted to have children. Never could have guessed we'd have two within a year. Anyway, yes, locking the garage is certainly generic enough and while there could, maybe, be negative connotations, none are readily popping to mind," Anwen postulated.

"Great," Lily said with unabashed enthusiasm, "who are we sending back?"

"There are a few things that we have to do before we can realistically send someone back in time, Lil. First, we've got to find Harry or his memories or whatever is going on there. If we correct time and he's not conscious of his surroundings and awake, he might be lost forever," Anwen explained, setting her head in her hands, elbows on her knees. Sirius reached over and gently rubbed between her shoulder blades.

"I still think that Ginny is the key here," James said. "She refuses to take her eyes off him up there."

"Love," Sirius asked and Anwen responded by tilting her head toward him, her green eyes clouded with concern. "What if we had Sitara come over? She could at least give us a read on his emotions. That might help." Anwen smiled at him and leaned up to kiss him gently.

"You are bloody brilliant," she complimented. "Go on, go get her and bring her over." Sirius nodded and got up, leaving the room to Floo to Fair Garden.

"Aren't you asking a bit much of a six year old, Anwen?" Eva asked, her innate nature as a counselor taking over.

"She's not a normal six year old," Lily responded instead. "She helped me one day, it was remarkable."

"I know it's unconventional, and if she'd been with us since birth I would have bound her powers until we had a chance to teach her how to use them, but we didn't get that opportunity. She came knowing how to help people's feelings. Hell she can manipulate them if she wants to, although we rarely let her do so. We're doing the best we can within the scope of what she considers normal. It's too soon for us to go making too many changes," Anwen explained.

Sirius returned with Sitara and Anwen gently explained to her what they wanted her to do. The little girl smiled brightly at her mother and together they held hands and climbed the stairs up to Harry's room. Sirius lifted the little girl onto his godson's bed and Sitara took his hand and held it for a moment. She then looked up at her mother.

"Anwen, I don't feel anything. It's like he's empty," she explained. Lily sobbed at the statement and James quickly curled her into his chest, not wanting to frighten the already nervous little girl. Anwen and Sirius tried very hard not to let their faces show their concern.

"What do you mean, sweetie?" Anwen asked.

"I mean there's nothing there," she said plainly. She then cocked her little head and closed her eyes and put her hands out in front of her. They moved in a straight line over Harry and she got up on her knees and turned herself around so that she was facing away from Harry's face. Sirius kept his arms almost touching her, ready to catch his child should she lose her balance. She stopped, opened her eyes and smiled at her Mum.

"There are too many people in Miss Ginny, Anwen. I can feel Mister Harry there. He's so scared," her little features contorting to a frightened face to make her point. "There's a...I don't know what it is, but I can feel it. It runs along Mister Harry and then points to Miss Ginny."

"Sitara, sweetie, are you saying that Harry is with Ginny. Inside of her?"

"Yes, Anwen. That's what I mean," she answered, clapping that she made herself understood.

"I don't believe it. Talk about a bridge..." Anwen muttered. "Sitara honey, you did SO well," she said as she hugged her. "Can you go with Daddy now?"

"Come here, Sunshine," Sirius opened his arms and she flung herself into them. "You are the bravest little sunbeam that I've ever met," he praised her as he hugged her close.

Anwen said nothing more before she pulled a chair over and sat in front of Ginny. She took a few steadying breaths and then closed her eyes, lifted her palms upward and began the incantation to both pass into Ginny's mind and project what she was seeing.

"Anwen," Remus spoke, "we can see the Burrow in the distance."

"Good, that's what her mind looks like. Okay… here goes," she whispered as she moved closer to the likeness of the Weasley family home.

Anwen opened the front gate to the yard and walked toward the door. Nothing had changed from when she was inside earlier, which was good, and she made a bee-line to Ginny's bedroom.

Before going into the trunk, Anwen took a good look around the room, noting where different pictures, posters, knick-knacks and such were located. Everything was in order. It wasn't until directed her vision toward the window that she was in for a shock. There was something huge just beyond the trees that backed up to the Burrow.

"What is that?" she heard James whisper. "That can't be." Anwen walked closer to the window and leaned her hands onto the sill, focusing her eyes on the immense structure that was connected to the Burrow by an elaborate bridge. This was the only time that anyone would be able to stand at the Burrow in England and see the Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch in Scotland right next door.

"Oh. My. Goddess," was all that Anwen could say. "Ginny, Ginny honey, can you show yourself to me? Can you let me talk with you?"

The silent young man sitting across from her nodded her head and a moment later a misty form of the girl came to stand before Anwen in her bedroom.

"Ginny, has he been with you all this time?"

"No, at first I didn't know where he was, but then he started talking to me. At the beginning I could only hear him, then I could see him, too. Now I can touch him and hold him," the girl explained.

"I don't know how you two did this, but it's remarkable. The thing is, we think we know what's causing the problems with him, and we think we can fix it. Before we try though, I need Harry to go back into his own body," Anwen explained.

"Oh, Anwen," Ginny cried, her face bursting with happiness and a smile that traversed the width of her face and a cascade of what could only be called 'happy tears' down her cheeks. "As good as that is, I don't know if we can get him to go back. He's so frightened of it."

"I know he is, and I know that it's hard for him, but we need to make him go back. If he isn't there when we do the spell...Please, we all want both of you back."

"I don't know if we can get him to go, I haven't been able to, but maybe you'll have more luck. Let me go get him for you," Ginny told her before she faded away. It felt like forever that Anwen stood there waiting for the girl to come back. Meanwhile, Sirius was keeping a close watch on Anwen's body. He knew that both projecting her astral form as she was and making the things she was seeing and doing inside Ginny's mind visible for the rest were incredibly draining on her magic. When she swooned while sitting, he knew that she needed him.

"Sunshine, can you let Mrs. Eva hold you for a minute? Daddy needs to help Mummy," he told her gently. Sitara nodded and he handed the little girl off to her auntie with a kiss on her forehead. He went to stand behind his wife, his hands on her shoulders. He could immediately feel Anwen pulling on his magic to give her more strength. It wasn't something she did often, and the feeling was very unsettling.

Ginny finally returned, a very haggard looking Harry in tow. Before he'd even reached the room fully he had begun to apologize.

"Winnie, I am so sorry..."

"Harry, you haven't done anything wrong. In fact, the lengths you went to for self-preservation are beyond impressive. It was ingenious protection, but we need you to go back into your own body," she explained. As soon as the words had left her mouth he started to violently shake his head.

"Too much pain. No!"

"Harry, it will only be for a little while. We've figured out what happened and why you're in so much pain. We want to fix things, but you have to be in your body for that to happen." Anwen went on to explain what they'd learned about the magics involved with the rings and the Rite by which they were wed. She explained that they'd be sending one of them back in time to speak with their younger selves. The only changes that they would be making were to tell that self that he and Ginny should hold onto the memories of their first life, and to lock the garage at Fair Garden up better in hopes of thwarting the accident.

"You mean I might walk?" Ginny asked excitedly.

"There is that chance, but there an equal chance that you could have hurt your back in another way. We don't know, but it does seem that the accident and the aftermath of it are the root of the problem. It's the best that we can do," the woman told them.

"Are you going to use the spell I did, because I have to tell you, it wasn't all that easy and the trip was rather awful," Harry confessed.

"No, Harry, I have a Time-Turner. They're standard issue when you're a prosecutor. I am technically still employed by the ICW, though not working with Dumbledore. We're going to use it. Far more reliable in terms of timing and location," Anwen teased. "We are going to discuss that magic, though. I'm impressed that you could do it."

"I'd never do it again," Harry confessed.

"So, you'll go back into your body?" Harry drew in a deep breath and nodded.

"Okay, let's get everything settled and decide who will do it and when we're going to send them to, and then I'll come and help you back. It's going to be okay, you two. I really do believe that," she told them, and then with Herculean effort, was able to make her astral self hug the young pair. She withdrew rapidly from Harry's brain, panting as she relaxed against the back of the chair and her husband's chest.

"Okay, who do we send?" Anwen asked aloud as she still worked to catch her breath.

"You and I are out, we're both in critical condition after the battle," Sirius said, indicating he and his wife.

"I don't think my head is settled either, given that I just gave birth," Lily added.

"I had been called into service at Wizengamot," Minerva explained. "There was significant house-cleaning that needed to be done. Death Eaters and supporters were being rounded up and detained. I was helping with the hearings."

"Right after Harry was born, they called me in as well. Those first few months I don't think that I slept at all," James said.

"Then it would appear that it needs to be me, since you were still in hiding my dear," Remus said to his wife. "I'll go back and tell myself that the kids need to hold onto the memories of this life and that I need to convince Sirius to lock up his garage better, right?"

"That would be it," James confirmed.

"You're going to want proof from yourself," Anwen said, "I know you too well. Your skeptical nature is bound to come out. Is there something you alone know that you can tell yourself to prove it's you?" Remus solemnly nodded.

"There are aspects of my nature, when I was still turning that I hid from everyone. Trust me, I can convince myself." Anwen nodded at her friend, and Eva laid her head on his chest, comforting him as best she could with the small girl in her arms.

"Here, hold onto it for the time being," Anwen said, lifting her Time-Turner from within her blouse and handing it to him. "Mimi when we're ready, can you help him set it. I need to stay with Harry while all this is going on."

"Of course, dear," she answered.

"We also need to set a protective circle. Sirius, it should be a salt one, anchored with Bramble Leaf and the runes: Thurisaz, Eihwaz, Algiz and Sowilo," Anwen explained. "We'll all need to be inside it so that we remember what we're doing. This way, if we don't succeed, we'll know not to try this again."

"Very interesting Charms work my dear, are you sure that you're not the one who's teaching the subject?" Minerva asked. Anwen shook her head, exhaustedly.

"She's been researching protective spells for weeks, attempting to figure out what Harry might have done to himself. She never came close to guessing this," Sirius explained as he moved his hand from Harry to Ginny.

"I think the circle should be in the outer room there, I want to stay with Harry until I must leave," Anwen suggested and the others nodded.

"What about our other children?" Lily asked and Anwen sighed.

"I don't know," she answered. "If this goes correctly, everything that's happened in the last few months will be rewritten anyway. If it doesn't go correctly, it won't matter. I think we should leave it, see what happens and what they know when we're done and then go from there. I know that we have to tell Draco and Bas something, I'm just not sure what that could be. There should be few changes to the rest of our lives."

It was then that Sitara started to wiggle in Eva's arms. Lily suggested that she go down the hall and play with the girls and the little girl cheerfully did so. She missed her best friend going ashen faced, but no one else in the room did. Her husband was immediately looking at her face on.

"Winnie, sweetheart, what's wrong?" Anwen didn't answer, but instead made everyone move away from Harry and Ginny to talk. When they were all in the outer room, Anwen started to speak with tears in her eyes.

"Sirius, we could lose her. I tried to think of everything that has happened for the last six months, and I couldn't see how having Harry and Ginny happy would have affected it. But, if Harry's okay, then there is no reason for me to go to India, and then we'd never have met and she wouldn't be here with us..." Sirius pulled his wife into his arms and held her, even as he got misty eyed. It had only been a few weeks, but he was just as attached to the child as she.

"Anwen, Sirius, we can't ask you to make that sacrifice..." James started to speak. "We'll have to find another way."

"James, you know as well as I there isn't," Anwen told him, and he nodded. This really was the only viable plan they had.

"What?" Lily yelled. "We're going to get this close to getting my son back to me and we're just going to stop?"

"Lil, we can't ask them to sacrifice their daughter..." James interrupted her.

"She's not even theirs. The adoption hasn't gone through," Lily blurted out and everyone was shocked by her statement. Anwen laughed in a befuddled way.

"I don't believe you, after what that little girl just did..." she shook her head at her best friend. "I'm going to chock that statement up to your being exhausted and overwhelmed and that it was a slip of the tongue. However, make no mistake, that little girl is as much my daughter as any of the others. I have never made a distinction between how any of my babies made it home to us." Anwen hissed through her clenched teeth. "We'll just have to put her in the protection spell with us. Is there a time shield charm of some sort?" She asked her husband.

"I think so; let me work on that while we get everything else taken care of, alright? And love, even if something happens and we lose her, we know where she is. We will go and get her and bring her back home," he promised and she nodded. There was one last hurt look between Anwen and Lily before the first went back to sit with Harry and Ginny and explain what they were going to do.

James and Sirius went down to his office to review some Charming texts while Lily and Eva went to Lily's in-house potions lab to get the items they would need for the protection circle. Remus got a quick course in Time-Turner usage from Minerva.

Once everything was set, Anwen ushered Harry back into his body and gave him a pain-killing potion to help him survive the next few minutes. Ginny moved herself to sit beside him again, their hands entwined. She began to tell him stories of their old life together, hoping it would bring him comfort.

They all moved inside the circle, Remus excepted and Sirius brought Sitara back from her playtime and had her sit with Anwen. He placed a special amulet around her neck and kissed her forehead and promised he loved her very much. He knelt down and wrapped his arms around his wife and daughter and every eye in the room was on Remus as he set the Time-Turner in motion.

Then he was gone.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note: Well, here it is, the end. I hope that it lives up to your expectations. I couldn't have done this without my amazing beta, Arnel, who not only is a speedy beta, but she's amazing at talking me through my anxiety. I also thank my cheerleaders HGRHfan35 and MyGinevra who kept me going when I was frustrated and ready to throw in the towel. I thank all you who are reading and those who've taken time to review. It really does make me very happy to see those notes in my email box telling me that I have a new one. My next story: "Ten Ways How Not To Get the Girl of Your Dreams" will begin posting on Feb. 5. It isn't a Harry/Ginny story, but rather a lost time in the lives of Anwen and Sirius. It's also a comedy. Put me on author alert so that you know when it starts. Again, thanks to everyone whose taken time to tell me what you think. Enjoy. Mutt N Feathers.

**Chapter 11:**

**Parachever (English translation: To perfect)**

**August 15, 1998**

"They look so happy," Ginny gushed as she looked across the room at Draco and Elisabeth dancing together. "They really are made for each other. I've got to be honest, that we were in Draco's wedding is still a little strange to me. I mean, really, who could have predicted that one?" Harry's arms wove even tighter around her midsection as she sat on his lap.

"Yeah, well Draco Malfoy and Draco Black, they're completely different people. They barely even look the same. The kid we knew before, his face was sallow and his eyes were haunted. That man there, he grew up loved and cared for. He's happy and content. That's a big change. I don't think that Malfoy's parents really loved him."

"True, and the one thing that you have to give Anwen and Sirius, there is love written all over them. They've got excess to spread around," Ginny's gaze moved to see the groom's proud parents watching the first dance from the sidelines. They both looked amazing in their dress robes, Sirius in the same deep grey that the bridal party had worn, Anwen in the forest green for her point in the pentagram for the Society Ritual that married the pair. Sirius stood behind her, his hands protectively on her shoulders, his lips against her temple, looking like the epitome of marital bliss even eighteen years into their marriage. Ginny could swear they would be mistaken as the newlyweds.

"Yeah, they're quite an inspiration," Harry agreed. "I hated having to tell Draco about the boy that we knew before, but I understood why Mum and Dad wanted me to. It would have been worse for me to say or do something as a reflex reaction and have him not understand. It was weird telling the guys about our trip though. Bas couldn't believe that we didn't know him at all."

"I don't know what hurt more, him thinking about not having his friends, or his not having his parents. He and his dad are so close and to think that he never knew Sirius. I mean, we lost him, but at least we'd known him. Bas never got the chance."

"Everything was so different Gin, most of it is better here, although I think that Bill was surprised to find out he was married to a part-Veela in his our other life," Harry teased.

"I think he's over it now," Ginny corrected him, watching her oldest brother talking and holding hands with the new Au Pair for the Black family, Petronella. They'd met two weeks ago, and Bill had spent more time at _Fair Garden_ than he had at The Burrow since then. Anwen had teased him that she was going to start charging him room and board. She was hoping that she could at least make it through the school year before she'd have to search for another Au Pair. She was beginning to think that she was sidelining as a matchmaker.

"Charlie is certainly happier," Ginny joked as she watched her brother rub lazy circles on his wife's enlarged abdomen. Eira was due in three weeks, but she looked like she could go into labor at any minute. Her stomach was huge.

"No more dragons in this life," Harry joked back.

"Nope, but I've seen his wife breathe fire, so, it's sort of the same thing," Ginny quipped Harry chuckled and kissed her cheek.

"Is it awful of me to say that I'm having a hard time seeing Remus with Eva, even though we knew her when we went back in time?" Harry asked. "I miss Tonks, she was always good for a laugh."

"No, it's not awful to say it, just as long as we know that he really does love Eva and that Tonks is happy wherever she is. I miss her too, if that makes you feel any better."

"It does, sweetheart," Harry confessed as he kissed her cheek again. "So are we going to have a party this big?" he asked, looking around at the enormous marquee that was set up on the lawns outside of the Black's home in Quimper. There were at least three hundred people present.

"I told you once before, I don't need the fancy clothes and the big party, I just need to be married to you."

"I wish we didn't have to wait," Harry complained. Molly and Arthur Weasley were adamant that Ginny finish her education before they have a wedding ceremony in this life. They were accepting that the couple was already married from their actions in the past, but they were insistent that the pair have another ceremony next year, when Ginny was done with her schooling. Ginny also wanted the chance to go through her Society initiation in this life in February. She wanted to have the full ceremony that they'd just witnessed.

Minerva McGonagall was the Esteemed Elder of the Circle now, and knowing that Draco was planned to be married by the Old Rite, his family had agreed to fill the seats of the star this year. Molly Weasley was yellow, Eva wore the point of blue, Alice Longbottom the fiery red, Lily as the white and his mother was Green. They would all be in place when Harry and Ginny wed early next spring as well.

"It won't be so bad," Ginny placated him. "I've got to revise for my International Standard examinations in December and you've got your training with Kenmare, but we'll still be together at night." Ginny had vetoed the idea of going to Hogwarts in the fall. She realized with all the combined knowledge that she was carrying a full seventh year would be tedious. She would instead revise on her own until the examinations in December. She had no doubt that she would do very well. Harry liked the plan much better than having her locked away in the castle for the next ten months.

"I just worry about all those Quidditch groupies. There's no way I want them touching my man, regardless of how big a heartthrob he becomes," she joked, but Harry didn't find it funny.

"How could you say that, Gin? I mean, I know that I screwed up in this time line that Mum and Dad were telling us about, the one before they fixed things, but I would never. I can't imagine that I had ever acted that way," Harry struggled to make penance for behavior that wasn't his, and yet it was. That he'd whored around and hurt Ginny, it still gave him nightmares. He was thankful that their parents agreed that since they were already technically married they could spend their nights together. James and Lily had offered the pair the small gatehouse on the Potter property for their use, knowing that they really didn't want to hear their oldest son and his wife/girlfriend/whatever she was when they were together. Waking up and having Ginny there to hold him made all his nightmares go away much faster.

"Harry, regardless of what I've been told you did, **I** don't remember it and **you** didn't do it. You have always stood by me, treated me with the utmost of respect, held me up when I needed it and pushed me to do better when I felt like giving up. I know that you love me, unconditionally, and that no other girl will ever turn your head enough to make you leave me."

"You're amazing, Gin. I love you so much," he cooed just before he kissed her.

The bride and groom's first dance ended and Draco went over and offered his hand to his mother while Elisabeth went to dance with her father. Sirius, being the consummate gentleman went and asked Elisabeth's mother, Claudette, to dance with him. Anwen beamed at her son while he danced with her.

"Why do you have that silly grin on your face, Mum?"

"It's not silly, it's pride, my dear boy," Anwen gently rebuked. "You had so much you had to overcome in this life, and yet, here you are. You're headed off to get your Master certification in Astronomy. You're married and your wife is a beautiful, compassionate and considerate woman." Anwen choked back some tears. "You could not make me prouder of you. That I was given the privilege of being your Mum...God blessed me ten fold with you my dear boy."

"Oh, Mum," Draco said as he broke the dance hold and instead gave her a hug as they continued to sway back and forth. "I love you, too. You never had to take me in, and yet you did. I'm the lucky one." Draco had been deeply affected when he'd learned about the boy that Harry and Ginny had known in their other life. The idea of him as a Death Eater haunted him. He couldn't imagine the sort of life he had led to make that choice. He held his Mum a moment longer, his large hands rubbing her back. A moment later his Dad was there, gently tapping to cut in. Elisabeth's parents were now dancing together, while Elisabeth waited patiently a few feet away.

"What did you say to her?" Sirius teased his son.

"Nothing, she started talking about how proud she was and then just got all weepy," Draco said with overemphasized innocence. Everyone knew Anwen could cry at the drop of a hat. "I'm going to go dance with my wife." As he made his hasty escape, Sirius pulled Anwen to him.

"You know, this is only the first of our children getting married. If you weep like this at all the weddings..."

"And what if I do," Anwen interrupted. "They're my babies and if I want to cry over how proud of them I am, then that's my right."

"Yes, dear, it is," Sirius placated her, his lips resting on her temple and he gently led her through the waltz that was playing.

When the song ended, the rest of the guests were invited to join the dancing. Harry and Ginny continued to share their chair, much more interested in their sweet conversation and cuddling than anything else. Ginny pointed over to where the youngest of the Black, Potter and Lupin girls were. They were in a circle, spinning around, heads thrown back in laughter. The tempo of the music was lively, and it matched the group's enthusiasm.

"Better them than me," Harry said as he watched them. He reveled in having siblings in this life. He even tolerated when his littlest sister, Brynne, wanted to do his hair. He'd worn the pink and purple barrettes she'd attached to his longer locks for the whole day, earning sniggers from his brother and father. Harry didn't care. That he was able to call this little bundle of energy his sister, something that he'd so longed for before, he'd endure any 'torture' she could come up with.

Harry had also discovered that he enjoyed sitting with Eva-Claire, his second youngest sister. She was quiet and introspective, but very thoughtful and perceptive. She read avidly, and together they discussed Muggle books they'd both read. She was also a romantic at heart, much like his Ginny, and that worried him. He didn't want to see her heart broken as she grew up. He knew that he could follow in the footsteps of the Weasley boys, and let any potential suitors of his sisters know that if they hurt his sister, the boy would have to deal with him.

He scanned the room finding the oldest of his sisters talking with Lilyan Black. No surprise there, they were inseparable. Emma had finally just moved all her stuff over to the Black's house last week for a permanent slumber party. She was the hardest of his siblings to like, but only because she was an eleven year old know-it-all. She reminded him a whole lot of Hermione when they'd first met. His first impression of his dear friend hadn't been all that great, but he also knew that she quickly grew on him. He hoped the same would happen with Emma. He then located his brother Evan as well, talking with Bastien and Ethan Black, smiling that they were all as close as they were. He had been working with his brother on his Quidditch skills, and was impressed with the natural talent that he possessed.

"Hey, where were you?" Ginny asked him.

"Just thinking about my family," he told her, his hands gently rubbing along her hip even through the layers of frilly material that made the skirt of her dress. "It's a lot to take in, knowing that I grew up with them here, that I was surrounded by love. A lot different from the cupboard under the stairs."

"That it is, Harry. I'm so happy that you grew up surrounded by people who cared deeply for you. You always deserved so much better than you'd had," she told him before she kissed him gently.

"Yeah, but it was the best that I could be given at the time, living with the Dursleys. There wasn't anywhere else to go. Believe me, having all that in my memory, it makes me appreciate what I have now even more."

"It is so weird to remember all this stuff that we supposedly did, but not really. I'm thankful that most of it is just disappearing. Those first few weeks were bad. I kept getting headaches, like my head was overstuffed and it was all pushing out," he explained.

"Definitely," Ginny answered him. The fast paced song ended and a slower one began. The congress of little girls exited the floor, all charging for their table and the sweets that were there. Fortunately Mrs. Evans was there to keep an eye on them so that they wouldn't overindulge. Ginny watched her brother lead Hermione out to the floor, smiling at the pair.

"So what do you think," she began her question for Harry, "will Ron and Hermione will get married?"

"For his sake, I hope so," Harry said. "Otherwise, he's going to spend his entire life getting himself out of mishaps that his mouth gets him into. She keeps him from leaping without looking." Ginny giggled at that.

"So true." Her gaze went further across the dance floor, until she saw another surprising pair. "Harry is that your brother dancing with Lilyan Black?" Harry followed her line of sight until he saw what she was looking at.

"That indeed he is, huh, not expecting that one."

"Oh, they're cute together," Ginny gushed.

"They're eleven and fourteen, love, no, too young."

"I don't know, that's the age that Sirius met Anwen at. They both felt the pull to one another right away. Maybe it's something in that Black blood?"

"Don't even go there, sweetheart," Harry cautioned her, instead taking her hand in his and spinning her charmed ring on her finger. They'd taken to wearing their wedding rings, but not on their left hands, not just yet. They were instead on their right, but it was enough for now. Harry had gotten an engagement ring for Ginny, a real one, something that he'd never given her before. He was formulating a plan on how to ask her, but he wanted to wait until after Draco and Elisabeth's wedding; today was their day.

Across the way, James and Lily were dancing with one another, but they were both watching their eldest son and his true love.

"It's good to see them happy, isn't it?" Lily sighed into James.

"It is," he smiled. "So much better than the drama we went through before. It was exhausting. I can't believe that lock suggestion worked. We left a hell of a lot to chance there."

"I don't know what Remus told Sirius, but that was a little more than a 'lock' he put on the bike garage. Honestly, a Muggle keypad as well as a wand check to get in, and then a magical hand scan to make the bikes start. Perhaps he went a little overboard," Lily joked. She remembered when he'd put the safety measures in place, thinking that it was overdone. It wasn't until July when she suddenly had the memories of some alternate time line and the disastrous accident that had occurred there did any of them understand why he'd gone to such lengths.

"Yes, well Padfoot was never known for doing things part way. If he's in, he's all the way in," James teased his best mate.

"True," Lily agreed, still watching Harry and Ginny. "Do you think that they're making the best choices for their lives now? They're not technically married and yet we're letting them share the gatehouse. Ginny has decided not to go to Hogwarts in the fall, Harry's playing professional Quidditch instead of having a real career. It all seems a little irresponsible to me." James paused for a moment before speaking.

"As you said, they're not technically married, but they are tied to each other in a way that's deeper than marriage. As for them not being responsible, I get the feeling that at least in Harry's case, he's been so responsible for so long, he just wanted some time to relax. When he's done playing, he wants to go to the Auror academy, but it's better to play pro Quidditch while you're young. Now as for his playing for Kenmare..." James scowled and hung his head as if in shame. "It could have been worse, however; he could have taken the offer from Puddlemere. I just wouldn't have been able to do that."

"Oh, stop it Jamie! Yes, you would have. He's your son and you're proud of him regardless of what he does," Lily rebuked him gently and James relented.

"True, but could you imagine how Sirius would have taken the mickey out of me for that one? The first time I wore his jersey? It would have been awful."

"Well, Kenmare is a neutral team, no one was a fan before, so we won't have to deal with that. I sometimes think that Harry did it just to make your life easier," Lily confessed.

"I don't think that. The offer from Kenmare was the best, that's why he took it."

"Perhaps." James spun her around and they passed Anwen dancing with Remus while Sirius had Eva out on the floor. The conversation between Anwen and Remus seemed to be quite intense.

"You know, you're brilliant," he told her. Anwen shook her head at him.

"No, you're the brilliant one, Mr. Professor of the Year by the International Standard Committee on Wizarding Education. I didn't even realize that you'd been nominated until the memo that you'd won came across my desk," she gushed. "I can't wait for the ceremony. It'll be in London and it will be the first act of the England quadrennial of the ICW."

"If I were so brilliant, I would have figured out a way to keep you from being hurt. I tried, I really did," Remus confessed. It was only after his return that Anwen learned that he'd attempted to stop her leg injuries from happening.

"I know you did, and it's the nicest gift that anyone tried to give me, but some things are just written into the tapestry of our lives. Apparently I was destined to lose the use of my leg. Really, I'm okay with it."

"I know you are, but I so badly wanted to have you not need to lose something else. It seemed to me that you'd already sacrificed more than should have ever been expected of you," he said sadly.

"Oh, Remus, what I've gone through as made me who I am. Anyway, I'm so blessed in so many ways, having a poorly working leg is hardly worth complaining about. Lily still thinks that she's getting close to the tissue regeneration potion. Now that Bas is working with her, they're going to be relentless. People don't understand just how dogged my son can be. He's so much like his dad that way."

"Nice pun, Anwen."

"I could have made it worse, called him seriously dogged." Remus groaned at the very bad pun and danced her across the floor, being careful not to hurt her.

As they waltzed, two friends stood talking with each other. Bas was questioning Neville about how things were going at the Auror Academy.

"It's good, tough, but Dad had warned me about that. I can't believe my Mum is teaching there now. Can you imagine if I do poorly in my advanced Herbology and Botanicals class and she's got to fail her own son?"

"Neville, you couldn't do badly in a Herbology class even if you never lifted a book or read a thing. You're brilliant at it. I bet you'll test out of the class," Bas told him. Neville shrugged. "But you're happy, right? This was your choice, not your parents?"

"No, all mine. Mum even tried to talk me out of it, but I wanted to do this. It's important work that the Aurors do, and I want to follow in my parents' footsteps."

"More power to you, mate. The world needs more people like you who are willing to do their part," Bas complimented him. "Look over there... I think that Hannah Abbott is looking at you again. You really should go ask her to dance. She's sweet."

"I don't know, Bas, I'm not good around girls like you are," Neville said dejectedly.

"Bugger off man, I don't want you to ask her to marry you, just go ask to dance. You'll never find out if she likes you by staying way over on this side of the room," his friend pushed.

Just then a little girl in a pale pink dress ran over to Bastien and pulled on his hand. "You promised to dance with me," she reminded him. Bas knelt down so that he was eye to eye with her wide brown orbs.

"That I did, sunshine," he said, using his father's pet name for his little sister. "Come on, Neville was just about to go ask Hannah to dance."

"Oh, good," Sitara Black remarked, "she's got pretty hair." Bastien smiled at his newest sister.

"I think Neville thinks so, too," he sniggered as he gave his mate a little shove and then picked his sister up and began to spin her around while she giggled at the speed. Harry watched his cousin spin Sitara.

"I can't believe they risked her to save us," Harry said, still attempting to get over his shock that Anwen and Sirius risked losing her to make sure that Harry and Ginny were restored.

"They did everything they could before they cast the spell. It was what Sirius called a calculated risk. Thankfully it worked out in their favour. Can you imagine her not being part of the family? She just seems to fit," Ginny mused. "I feel badly for Bas though, he hasn't really dated since he and Susan broke up. I do hope that he will find love."

"Perhaps sweetheart, but it takes time. Not everyone falls in love with the girl they meet on the platform for the train the first day of school. We can't all be that lucky."

"I think that love is out there for him, he just needs to find the right girl. She needs to be extraordinary, just like him," Ginny suggested and it made Harry smile.

"You just want everyone to be in love, don't you?"

"Of course, I'm happy, therefore everyone should be."

"Ginevra Molly Weasley Potter, you are a hopeless romantic," Harry teased his love, kissing the end of her nose to punctuate his sentence.

"Nope, I'm a hopeful romantic." Harry gently pushed Ginny off his lap and set her on her feet before he rose to embrace her.

"We've sat here long enough," he told her, "I think we should show them how it's done." Harry took his love into a proper hold and spun her onto the floor. He'd learned to dance from his Dad and uncles before the Yule Ball his fourth year, it was his and Ginny's first real dancing and he wanted to recreate the memories here. Ginny relaxed into his hold and let him lead. No matter what else they might face, being in Harry's arms made everything right.


End file.
